Italian fish stew

As you probably gathered by now i am a totally wing it kind of chef when left on my own devices, so here is another of my made up recipes.

Inspired by a friend who is married to an Italian and has one of those traditional mother in laws that loves to feed people a bit like me but i am English and cant cook like an Italian oh i wish i could.

I adore fish and i have never had a fish stew and had a real hankering for it.  So for a few days i mulled over all the flavours in  my head that felt Italian and concocted this fish stew and i am so sorry if now i have insulted a lot of Italians but i don't have an Italian mama to feed me, so if there are any Italian reader i would love to know what you think, if i have forgotten anything if i should take something out.  Anyways it was really lovely and i loved mopping up the sauce with the home made bread rolls at the end and i will make this again.

it all seems to be about the sauce treat it slow and let the flavours infuse

Start with a tbsp of oil and fry gently half a red onion very finely chopped
add a passata
add a good splash of balsamic
and even better slug of rioja
a good few slugs of fish stock
crush in a couple of cloves of garlic
a sprinkle of oregano
a few sprigs of fresh thyme leaves taken off the stalks
a tsp or 2 or 3 of smoked paprika
some salt and fresh ground black pepper

leave on a low low heat to gentle plip plop to cook the wine out and develop the flavours

When you ready to eat increase the sauce temperature to a higher heat so it can cook fish
add fine slices of fennel ( i love fennel )
and a selection of mixed fish i had squid, salmon, prawns, monkfish, mussels

Do not stir as the salmon will break up and you will loose it when the fish is cooked through

serve with the sprinkles of the fluffy green fennel tuffs on top of the stew