Recipe: Francois' Normandy-style Bouillabaisse

Francois' Normandy-style Bouillabaisse. Photo / Jason Burgess

Bouillabaisse originates from Marseille. An authentic Marseille bouillabaisse must include rascasse (a bony rockfish).

Julia Child, who lived in Marseille for a year, was a bit more liberal and wrote; "To me the telling flavour of bouillabaisse comes from two things: the Provençal soup base - garlic, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, fennel, saffron, thyme, bay, and usually a bit of dried orange peel - and, of course, the fish - lean (non-oily), firm-fleshed, soft-fleshed, gelatinous, and shellfish."

So where does that leave us? In broad terms a bouillabaisse will feature a variety of fish of different textures, shellfish, bread slices to place in the bottom of the soup bowl and a rouille (sauce) to dollop into the soup. It's a main course and should be eaten with gusto.

Francois also had a bowl of grated cheese on the table and this would cause consternation to many a Frenchman. Serve it on the table in a large bowl as he did (or the pot that you made it in), let your guests add bread to their soup bowl, some grated cheese, the soup and the rouille.

Serves 8

• 3-4kg fish and shellfish (use a mix of hapuka, snapper, tarakihi, monkfish, gurnard, squid, octopus, mussels etc). The quantities of each don't matter but you need a range of textures. Clean and scale the fish and cut into large chunks - or ask your fishmonger to do this. You should leave the bones in and the skin on but this is not to everyone's taste.

• 1 cup olive oil
• 3 medium onions, peeled and cut into thick slices
• 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 10 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 head of fennel, roughly chopped
• Peel of 1 orange
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 8 strands saffron, soaked in tbsp hot water
• 1 cup chopped parsley

1. Heat the olive oil in a very large pan. Add the onions, tomato paste and garlic and cook together until the onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, fennel and orange peel, the bay leaves and thyme. Cook gently for 10 minutes .

2. Add 6 cups of water and the 2 cups of white wine. Bring to the boil and add the bay leaves, thyme and the soaked saffron. Boil for 5 minutes, this helps amalgamate the oil and the water and infuse all the flavours.

3. Keeping the heat high, start adding the fish and shellfish, starting with the meatiest first, as these will take the longest to cook. You may need to add more water as you go, the fish should be just covered. Once all the fish is cooked until just tender, turn the heat right down and scatter with the chopped parsley. Take the pot to the table to serve or, if you have one, a very large bowl.