Name: Tremendous Bouillabaisse
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 large yellow onion, diced; 1 leek, white and pale green parts, sliced; 1 fennel bulb, cored and diced; 6 cloves garlic, smashed; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes; 1 cup dry white wine; 6 cups fish stock or clam juice; 1 generous pinch saffron threads; 2 orange peel strips; 2 bay leaves; 4 sprigs fresh thyme; 1.5 tsp, plus more to taste kosher salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 1.5 lb firm white fish (cod, halibut, snapper), cut into 2-inch chunks; 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined; 1 lb mussels, scrubbed and debearded; 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped; 1 baguette, sliced and toasted (for serving); 1/2 cup prepared rouille or aioli (for serving)

Tremendous Bouillabaisse

Prep

25m

Cook

45m

Total

70m

Bigly says

Pay attention. Bouillabaisse. The real one. Boo-yah-base. Say it with me — Boo. Yah. Base — and don't be scared, the French are not going to come to your house and grade you, and if they did, you would WIN, because the bouillabaisse you are about to make would humble a chef from Marseille. The best bowl of my life was, of all places, in a gas station in Albuquerque — true story, a man behind the counter named Ramón had a single bubbling pot on a hot plate, he handed me a styrofoam cup, I cried, he nodded, neither of us said a word. THAT is bouillabaisse. The location doesn't matter. The broth matters.

The origin story — and I love this story, I tell it at parties, people beg me to stop telling it, I keep going — is that the fishermen of Marseille used to make this with the fish they couldn't sell. Couldn't sell. Threw them in a pot. And out of that pot came one of the great soups of human history. Plain and simple. The food historians agree on this — I had a guy with a PhD walk me through it once, took him 90 minutes, completely worth it — bouillabaisse is what happens when broke geniuses get hungry. And every broke genius since has been improving the formula. You and I are the next link in that chain. Tremendous chain. Tremendous.

The secret — and other recipe sites will absolutely BURY this secret behind a cookie banner with 18 toggles and a newsletter popup asking for your email twice, who needs your email twice, what are they doing with the first one — the secret is orange peel. ORANGE PEEL. In a fish soup. You hear that and your eyebrows go up, I can see it from here, you're making the face. Make the face. Then peel an orange. Two strips, no white pith, you drop them in with the saffron and the broth shifts — it goes from 'pretty good fish stew' to 'why am I crying at my kitchen counter.' That's the move. That is the WHOLE move.

Ingredients

1/4 cupolive oil
1 largeyellow onion, diced
1leek, white and pale green parts, sliced
1fennel bulb, cored and diced(fennel is the secret weapon, do not skip)
6 clovesgarlic, smashed
2 tbsptomato paste
1 (28 oz) cancrushed tomatoes
1 cupdry white wine
6 cupsfish stock or clam juice
1 generous pinchsaffron threads(the most expensive ingredient in your kitchen and worth every penny)
2orange peel strips(peeler only, no white pith)
2bay leaves
4 sprigsfresh thyme
1.5 tsp, plus more to tastekosher salt
1 tspblack pepper
1.5 lbfirm white fish (cod, halibut, snapper), cut into 2-inch chunks
1 lblarge shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lbmussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/4 cupfresh parsley, chopped
1baguette, sliced and toasted (for serving)
1/2 cupprepared rouille or aioli (for serving)

Steps

1
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, leek, and fennel and cook 8-10 minutes until soft and translucent.
2
Add the garlic and tomato paste. Stir constantly for 2 minutes until the paste darkens slightly.
3
Pour in the white wine and scrape up any browned bits. Let it reduce by half, about 3 minutes.
4
Add the crushed tomatoes, fish stock, saffron, orange peel, bay leaves, thyme, salt, and pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer.
5
Simmer uncovered for 25 minutes to develop the broth. Taste and adjust salt.
6
Remove the bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and orange peel. The broth should be deeply colored and fragrant.
7
Increase heat to medium. Add the white fish in a single layer and simmer 4 minutes.
8
Add the shrimp and mussels. Cover and cook 4-5 minutes until the mussels open and the shrimp are pink. Discard any mussels that did not open.
9
Ladle into wide bowls. Top with chopped parsley. Serve with toasted baguette spread with rouille, floated on top of the soup.

One more thing

That's bouillabaisse. Real bouillabaisse. The kind they make in Marseille — except yours is better, because yours has confidence, and confidence is an ingredient nobody lists on the card but every great cook puts in. You ladle this into wide bowls, you float a slice of rouille-smeared baguette on top, you pour a cold glass of rose, and you watch the people at your table forget how to make conversation. The mussels open, the saffron blooms, the orange peel works its slow quiet magic — and somewhere in Marseille, a fisherman senses a disturbance and tips his hat to a kitchen he will never see. Beautiful.