Italian fish soup with angel hair pasta

Step 1

Clean and prepare the fish and prawns as stated in the content above. Then cut the fish into 3-4 pieces. Heads and tails go into the soup too. Remove the heads from the prawns and set aside the tails. The heads go in the soup.

Step 2

Put the porcini mushrooms to soak in warm water for 15-20 minutes. Then drain them and cut into small pieces. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Wash and chop the fresh parsley. Zest the lemon.

Step 3

Sauté the onion, garlic and parsley in 2 tbsp olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add the drained and chopped porcini and sauté for another minute or Then add the tomato concentrate (paste). Stir and let it cook a little before adding a small amount of the vegetable stock (1/2 a cup).

Step 4

Add all the fish pieces and the shrimp/prawn heads to the pot. Stir again and mix so they get a little infused with the flavors of the aromatics, mushrooms and tomato paste. Next add the bay leaf, ½ the freshly grated lemon zest and a little salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook over a medium heat for another 5 minutes.

Step 5

Add the rest of the vegetable broth, bring the soup to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook for about 25 minutes o until the fish starts to fall off the bones.

Step 6

Pass the fish soup through a fine sieve into another smaller pot. You can discard all the fish and bones, or carefully remove some of the meat and add it back intoto the fish soup. Next add the saffron and stir until it dissolves.

Step 7

Put a pot of water onto boil for the pasta. Add salt once it starts to boil. Then bring to a boil again. Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet. Angel hair pasta only needs 2 minutes of cooking time.

Step 8

Melt a little butter in a small frying pan with a couple of peeled and halved garlic cloves. Sauté the prawn tails in the butter and garlic for about 1-2 minutes each side. You can peel the prawns before adding them to the soup or leave them unpeeled.

Step 9

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Drain the pasta well and add it to the heated oil. Stir fry the pasta until it starts to crisp slightly.

Step 10

Place a portion of pasta in each soup bowl. Reheat the soup, if necessary, then add a ladle or two of soup to each bowl with a couple of sautéed shrimp/prawn tails. Sprinkle more chopped parsley and lemon zest onto the soup and serve with a quarter of lemon for each person.