Spinach Bouillabaisse Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees; brush bread liberally with olive oil, and bake on a sheet, turning once, until golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
• Add enough olive oil to a Dutch oven, deep skillet or shallow pot to make a thick layer (don't skimp) on the bottom. In it, cook onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, fennel and saffron until glossy. Add stock and tomato and bring to a moderate boil; cook until thick and stewy rather than soupy. Season to taste; it should be so delicious that you don't even care whether you add fish.
• Lower heat to a simmer, and, as you add fish, adjust heat so that the liquid continues to bubble gently. Add fish in order of how long they will take to cook. Monkfish, striped bass and squid are fish that might require more than a few minutes, so add them first. About five minutes later add clams and mussels, holding back any fish that has been cooked or will cook in a flash. When mollusks open, add remaining fish. Cut scallops into quarters and place in the bottom of 4 bowls.
• Add pastis if you're using it; taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle hot soup and fish over the scallops, distributing clams and mussels evenly. Garnish and serve with croutons and rouille, if you're using.

Steps:

• To make the croutons heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Lay the slices of bread on a flat baking tray in a single layer, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 15 mins until golden and crisp. Set aside - can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container.
• Use a layer of the green part of the leek to wrap around and make a herb bundle with the thyme, bay, parsley stalks, orange peel and chilli. Tie everything together with kitchen string and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a very large casserole dish or stock pot and throw in the onion, sliced leek and fennel and cook for about 10 mins until softened. Stir through the garlic and cook for 2 mins more, then add the herb bundle, tomato purée, star anise, Pernod if using, chopped tomatoes and saffron. Simmer and stir for a minute or two then pour over the fish stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer, then add the piece of potato. Bubble everything gently for 30 mins until you have a thin tomatoey soup. When that piece of potato is on the brink of collapse, fish it out and set aside to make the rouille.
• While the broth is simmering make the rouille by crushing the garlic, chilli and saffron with a pinch of salt in a mortar with a pestle. Mash in the cooked potato to make a sticky paste then whisk in the egg yolk and, very gradually, the olive oil until you make a mayonnaise-like sauce. Stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
• Once the chunky tomato broth has cooked you have two options: for a rustic bouillabaisse, simply poach your fish in it along with the mussels, if you're using (just until they open) and serve. For a refined version, remove the herb bundle and star anise. Using a handheld or table-top blender, blitz the soup until smooth. Pass the soup through a sieve into a large, clean pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Starting with the densest fish, add the chunks to the broth and cook for 1 min before adding the next type. With the fish we used, the order was: monkfish, John Dory, grey mullet, snapper. When all the fish is in, scatter over the mussels, if using, and simmer everything for about 5 mins until just cooked and the mussels have opened.
• Use a slotted spoon to carefully scoop the fish and mussels out onto a warmed serving platter, moisten with just a little broth and scatter over the chopped parsley. Bring everything to the table. Some people eat it as two courses, serving the broth with croutons and rouille first, then the fish spooned into the same bowl. Others simply serve it as a fish stew. Whichever way you choose the rouille is there to be stirred into the broth to thicken and give it a kick.

Steps:

• Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1 T salt and the spinach. Blanch just until wilted, less than a minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the spinach to a bowl of cold water. Let sit for a couple of minutes, drain, and squeeze out the water. Chop coarsely and set aside. Measure out 6 c of the cooking water and set aside.
• Heat 1 T olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat and add the leeks. Cook, stirring often, until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes, and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, for another minute or so, until fragrant.
• Add the spinach and stir together for a few seconds, then add the potatoes, the 6 c reserved blanching water, and the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil and crumble in the saffron.
• Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Taste and adjust salt. Add pepper. Discard the bouquet garni.
• Have the soup at a bare simmer. One by one, break each egg into a teacup, then tip into the soup. Poach the eggs for 4-5 minutes, until just set.
• Place a crouton in each bowl and, using a slotted spoon, scoop out a poached egg and place it on top. Ladle the soup into the bowls. Sprinkle on the cheese and drizzle on a little olive oil. Serve.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you prepare the spinach. When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add the spinach. Blanch for 30 seconds and transfer to a bowl of cold water without draining the water from the pot. Measure out 2 quarts of the boiling water and set aside. Drain the spinach, squeeze out excess water and chop coarsely. Set aside.
• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven and add the onion and leek. Cook, stirring often, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add a generous pinch of salt and the garlic, stir over medium heat until the garlic smells fragrant, no more than a minute, and stir in the broth from the spinach, the potatoes, bouquet garni and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, add the saffron, and turn the heat to low. Cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender but still intact and the broth is fragrant.
• Stir in the spinach, cover and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Add pepper, remove the bouquet garni, taste and adjust seasonings.
• Keep the soup at a bare simmer. Break each egg into the soup (I prefer to first break the egg into a teacup and then tip it into the soup). Cover and continue to simmer until the eggs are set, about 5 minutes.
• Serve the soup in wide bowls with an egg in each one. Sprinkle gruyere over each egg, and garnish if desired with toasted rounds of baguette or whole-wheat bread rubbed with garlic.

Steps:

• Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the package instructions. Drain, reserving 2/3 cup of the pasta water, then set aside.
• In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes.
• Add about one-fourth of the cooked pasta to the pan, followed by one-fourth of the spinach, one-fourth of the Parmesan, one-fourth of the lemon juice and one-fourth of the lemon zest, stirring all the time until the spinach has wilted, about 1 minute. Continue this process of adding the ingredients in quarters, with additions of pasta water as needed if the mixture becomes too dry, until the pasta, spinach, Parmesan, lemon juice and lemon zest have all been added.
• Sprinkle over more Parmesan and season with freshly cracked black pepper. Toss until everything is well coated. Taste and adjust the seasonings, as needed.