Mindy and Julia's Roman Seafood Stew

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2kg ripe tomatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 8 whole red mullet (100g each), cleaned
• 8 scampi
• 16 scampettini (baby scampi)
• 20 mussels
• 30 clams
• 1 loaf pugliese bread (crusty Italian loaf), sliced
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 2 lemons, rind finely grated
• 250ml-300ml white wine

Parsley and garlic oil

• 2 bunchesflat-leaf parsley
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 200ml olive oil

Method: Preparation: 25 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes

1. Cut a cross in base of each tomato then place in a large pan, cover with boiling water and stand 3 minutes. Drain tomatoes. Peel, quarter and deseed tomatoes, roughly chop.

2. Cover base of a large saucepan with oil, add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5-7 minutes until soft. Add tomatoes and 2 whole mullet and simmer gently for 10 minutes until tender.

3. Fillet and pin-bone the remaining mullet. Prepare the scampi and scampettini by shelling the mid- section, leaving the heads and tails intact. Reserve some of the front claws for presentation. De-beard and scrub mussels and purge the clams.

4. Add the scampi and scampettini shells to the tomato sauce, simmer 5 minutes, adding a little water if necessary.

5. For the parsley and garlic oil; remove the leaves from the parsley and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and pat dry. Blanch the garlic in boiling water for 1 minute, drain and pat dry. Combine parsley, 2 of the garlic cloves and oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve. Taste oil and adjust seasoning, adding more garlic if needed.

6. Rub both sides bread with oil and char-grill. While hot rub with cut side of garlic and sprinkle with lemon rind.

7. In a deep frying pan with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and the mussels, pour in the wine and toss quickly. Cover and cook 1 minute until shells begin to open, add the clams add the scampi claws. Cover and cook 1-2 minutes, remove from the heat. Strain the cooking liquid into the tomato mixture, set the seafood aside. Remove the mullet and shells from the tomato sauce, season.

8. Heat oil in a large frying pan, pan fry the scampi, scampettini and mullet fillets. Toss the tomato sauce through the mussels and claws and ladle into bowls. Top with scampi, scampettini and mullet. Spoon over parsley and garlic oil and serve with bread.

Tip: always use the freshest and best seafood possible and super- ripe tomatoes. :)