Southern Italian fish stew with broccoli pangrattato
Serves: 6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Jonathan Gregson
Southern Italian fish stew with broccoli pangrattato
Recipe by Sam Harris
Serves: 6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
352Kcal
Fat
15gr
Saturates
2gr
Carbs
22gr
Sugars
5gr
Fibre
7gr
Protein
31gr
Salt
1.2gr
Sam Harris
Former chef patron of Zucca, a modern Italian restaurant in Bermondsey, Sam Harris has also previously worked at The River Café, Bibendum and Harvey Nichols. He loves to cook good Mediterranean food.
Sam Harris
Former chef patron of Zucca, a modern Italian restaurant in Bermondsey, Sam Harris has also previously worked at The River Café, Bibendum and Harvey Nichols. He loves to cook good Mediterranean food.
Ingredients
For the fish stew
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 bulbs of fennel, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
- 2 red chillies
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- a small glass of white wine
- 350g boneless and skinless chunky white fish fillet
- 500g mussels, cleaned
- 225g frozen raw jumbo king prawns, defrosted
- 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- juice of ½ lemon
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
For the broccoli pangrattano
- 100g stale white bread, such as baguette, in chunks
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1 lemon
- 3 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the stew up to the end of step 3 up to 3 days ahead; chill. Make the pangrattato a day ahead; store in an airtight container. Blanch the broccoli a few hours ahead.
- For the stew, heat the olive oil in a large pan and gently cook the fennel and onions for about 20 minutes on a low heat until very soft. Finely chop the garlic, anchovy and chillies. Toast the fennel seeds in a dry frying pan until fragrant; set aside.
- Add the chopped garlic, anchovies and chillies and the fennel seeds to the fennel and onions. Increase the heat and cook for a few minutes, stirring all the time.
- Add the tomatoes, wine and 300ml water; season and bring to the boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
- To make the pangrattato, whiz the stale bread in a food processor to breadcrumbs. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic, chilli and parsley, and cook over a high heat for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time. Add the breadcrumbs and, keeping the heat high, stir constantly until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden. Tip into a bowl and add a few gratings of lemon zest; season. Wipe out the pan with kitchen paper.
- Cut the fish into chunks. Add the fish chunks, mussels, prawns and chickpeas to the tomato sauce; gently stir to combine. Turn up the heat to high, then cover and cook for 5 minutes until the fish is just cooked through.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Blanch the broccoli for about 2 minutes – you want the florets to still be a little crunchy; drain. Heat the remaining olive oil in the cleaned frying pan, add the broccoli and a splash of water and stir until hot. Tip into a serving bowl and sprinkle with the pangrattato.
- Once the fish is cooked, discard any mussels that don't open. Stir in the lemon juice and chopped parsley. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with the broccoli pangrattato and plenty of crusty bread.
Chef quote
Pangrattato – literally 'grated bread' – was used for centuries in Italy as poor man's parmesan.
