Seafood Soup

I used the recipe Big Seafood Soup from Amalfi out of Molto Italiano.  But, as always, I didn’t exactly follow the recipe.  This is one of the easier soups I have ever made and was a big winner the other night.

1 medium red onion finely chopped
2 ribs of celery finely chopped
3 shallots finely chopped
1 T. red pepper flakes (more if you like a serious spice)

Take a dutch oven pot (such as Le Creuset), put on the stove and cover the bottom with olive oil.  Heat on a high heat and once it is really hot put in the ingredients above.  Saute for about 6-7 minutes or until everything is soft. 

Add to this 2 cups of a basic tomato sauce, 2 cups of white wine and bring to a boil.  Once I did this, I put the top on and let this hang out on low until I was ready to put the seafood in.  The seafood takes about 5-6 minutes and I wasn’t sure when everyone was walking in the door and wanted to cook it up at the last minute.  So, this sat on the stove for about 1/2 an hour which is fine.

Meanwhile, before putting in the seafood take a loaf of peasant bread and cut 10 slices at about an inch thick and toast them on both sides under the broiler, set aside.

We used a bunch of different seafood that we liked.  You could seriously use anything.  We were 5, so this is what we put in.

5 Razor Clams
10 mussels
5 Large New Zealand Mussels (they  happened to have them at the store and it looked interesting)
10 Large Shrimp, peeled and devined
1/2 lb. of Calamari cut into 1/2" rings
5 Large Scallops

When I was ready, I literally tossed all the seafood into the pot, brought the heat up to high and then back down to medium when it started to boil and covered the pot.  In about 2 minutes, I took the top off and stirred the fish around.  Repeated the procedure.  When everything was cooked thoroughly, I turned off the heat. 

In each of the 5 bowls I put in 2 pieces of the toasted bread.  Ladled the soup over and served.  I also served some bread on the side just for extra dipping.  Easy and really good.