Bouillabaisse
This seafood stew hails from the port city of Marseille and is truly the south of France in a bowl. The name originates from Occitan—a Provençal dialect—and means to boil and then simmer. The base is made from a purée of tiny rockfish the fishermen can’t sell, and then at least three kinds of whole […]
Ingredients
- 2.2 lb (1 kg) mix of whole small fish (such as whiting, red snapper, red sea bream), cut into large pieces
- 2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 leek, the white part only, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) tomato paste
- 6 cups (1.5 litres) water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley, dill)
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced into rounds
- 3/4 lb (340 g) potatoes, peeled and cut into slices 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick
- 1 ½ lb (675 g) mix of skinless fish fillets (such as salmon, walleye, monkfish, red snapper, sea bass), cut into large pieces
- 12 slices toasted bread
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and halved
- 1 recipe rouille sauce
- ½ cup (50 g) Gruyère cheese, grated (optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot, sweat the fish pieces, tomatoes, onion, leek and garlic in the oil. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the fish and vegetables. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the water, salt and bouquet garni. Season with pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove the large fish bones. In a blender, or using a hand blender, purée the stock until smooth. Over another pot or large bowl, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing with a ladle to extract the most liquid possible.
This seafood stew hails from the port city of Marseille and is truly the south of France in a bowl. The name originates from Occitan—a Provençal dialect—and means to boil and then simmer. The base is made from a purée of tiny rockfish the fishermen can’t sell, and then at least three kinds of whole fish are added: red rascasse, sea robin and conger (our version uses more common fish, but you can use any combination available). Although the fish are cooked whole in the soup’s broth, they’re removed, filleted and then added to each individual bowl. No bouillabaisse is complete without rouille, a garlicky, saffron- (and sometimes tomato-) based mayonnaise spread on crusty baguette for dipping.