Fish Soup with Casarecce

Method

1. Clean all seafood: remove the beard from mussels, clean clams, peel and devein prawns, clean squid and cuttlefish, clean sole and tub gurnard (remove skin and fillet), rinse sea snails.
2. Prepare artificial seawater: dissolve 28g of salt in 1 liter of cold water, then soak mussels and clams for a few hours to purge sand.
3. Prepare a fish fumet using the fish heads, bones, parsley stalks, bay leaf, and lemon peel. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, then strain.
4. In a skillet, heat olive oil with garlic and parsley. Add sea snails, then mussels and clams. Cover and cook for a few minutes, add a splash of vinegar, and cook until shells open. Remove the seafood and set aside; keep the cooking liquid.
5. In a deep casserole, sauté garlic, leek, carrot, chopped tomatoes, basil, and fennel seeds in olive oil. Add the fish fumet and some of the seafood cooking liquid.
6. Add saffron (two pistils) and stir.
7. Add the tougher seafood: cuttlefish, squid, and tub gurnard pieces. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add back the shelled mussels and clams.
9. Add the casarecce pasta and cook al dente in the soup, adding extra fish broth if needed.
10. In the last minutes, add the sole fillets and king prawns. Cook until just done.
11. Season with salt, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a grating of lemon zest. Serve hot.