Painted comber fish soup

Ingredients

• 1 kg painted combers (Serranus scriba), scaled and cleaned
• 1 green pepper
• 4 tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• Parsley
• A few saffron threads
• 1.5 litres water
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Thin slices of bread for soup

Method

First, cut off the heads of the painted combers and reserve the tails.

Pour a generous amount of olive oil into an earthenware casserole and fry the fish heads. Once they are well browned, remove them from the pan and set them aside.

Using the same oil, prepare a sofrito with the finely chopped green pepper and garlic. Add the tomatoes, chopped as finely as possible, and cook slowly until the mixture becomes soft and concentrated.

Return the fish heads to the casserole, stir a couple of times, pour in the water and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, prepare a seasoning paste in a mortar using a few saffron threads, salt, garlic, parsley and a little of the fish broth.

Strain the broth and set the fish heads aside. Once they have cooled slightly, remove the flesh, especially from the cheeks, and return it to the broth.

When the broth comes back to the boil, add the seasoning paste, stir well and serve.

While the soup is cooking, fry the reserved fish tails. These are traditionally served as a second course.

Serving suggestion

Place a few thin slices of soup bread in each bowl and ladle the hot broth over them.

The dish can also be turned into a brothy rice or noodle soup. Add the rice or noodles approximately fifteen minutes before serving.