Bouillabaisse

To prepare the bouillabaisse, first clean the fish: cut the fins of the red mullet 1, then remove the scales by rubbing the body with your hands in the opposite direction 2. Cut open the belly, remove the guts, and rinse well under running water 3. Finally, remove the eyes, which would give a bitter note to the soup.

Proceed in the same way to clean the gurnard: remove the fins and eyes, then scale the body with the appropriate tool 4. Cut open the belly 5 and remove the guts. Cut off the head 6 and set it aside for the stock.

Move on to the monkfish: remove the skin if present, and cut the tail end, which will be used for the stock 7, then cut the body into pieces of roughly the same size 8. When you have prepared all the fish 9, you can move on to the vegetables.

Peel the onions and cut them in half first 10 and then into coarse pieces. Coarsely chop the orange, without removing the peel 11, and the celery 12.

Clean the fennel and set aside the scraps 13, then chop it the same way 14. Place the fennel scraps in a tall, large pot along with half of the celery and onion 15.

Add the gurnard head and the monkfish tail 16, then cover with water 17. Bring to a boil and cook for 45 minutes from when the water starts boiling 18. You should get about 8 cups of stock.

When the stock is ready, you can proceed with the soup preparation: pour the remaining vegetables and the orange into a large wide pot 19, then add the powdered and thread saffron 20 and the fennel seeds 21.

Add the basil 22 and the peeled tomatoes that you have previously crushed with a ladle 23, then place the fish inside the pot 34.

Cover with about 6 cups of stock 25 and salt to taste. Bring to a boil 26 and let it cook on high heat for about 25 minutes; the boil should be very lively. After this time, lower the flame, place the mantis shrimp in the pot 27, and continue cooking for another 20 minutes; in this phase, the liquid should simmer.

In the meantime, prepare the rouille sauce: in a tall, narrow glass, put the garlic cloves with the cores removed 28, the crumbled bread crumb 29, and the chopped chili pepper with the seeds removed 30.

Add 1/2 cup of cold stock 31 and begin blending with an immersion blender 32, then add the egg yolk 33.

Salt 34 and continue emulsifying by pouring in the oil in a thin stream, as if making mayonnaise 35, until you obtain a creamy and homogeneous consistency 36.

When the soup is cooked, turn off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. At this point, gently remove the fish from the pot using a slotted spoon 37, then strain the broth 38. Serve the fish with the hot strained broth in a serving pot and accompany your bouillabaisse with rouille sauce and slices of toasted bread 39!