Cook this: Bullinada — Catalan fish soup with mayonnaise — from Claudia Roden's Mediterranean

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Our cookbook of the week is Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel by Claudia Roden. Over the next two days, we’ll feature another recipes from the book and an interview with the author.

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Stuffed peppers with breadcrumbs, anchovies, olives and capers; and green barley “risotto” with peas and asparagus.

Laced with saffron and stirred through with garlic mayonnaise, bullinada hails from Catalonia in northeastern Spain. The fish soup is akin to the bourride of Provence and Languedoc, or the gazpachuelo of Malaga, says food writer and cookbook author Claudia Roden.

In Catalonia, Roden enjoyed bullinada brimming with baby squid. It’s also commonly prepared with a combination of shrimp and shellfish, though she often makes it with white fish alone.

“I was looking for a recipe for people who can’t eat seafood, and I have some friends who are kosher,” says Roden, who favours using hake, monkfish or cod cheeks.

The creamy, sunny soup is ideal for entertaining since you can make most of it in advance, she explains. Shortly before serving, add the fish and simmer until opaque and flaky — being careful not to overcook.

You and your guests will be rewarded: “It has a mysterious, delicate flavour and beautiful warm colour.”

BULLINADA

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves; 6 cloves finely chopped, 2 cloves crushed
1 good pinch saffron threads
2 qt (1.9 L) fish stock
7 tbsp (100 mL) dry white wine
1 3/4 lb (800 g) new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 tsp fennel seeds
Strips of peel from 1/2 orange
Salt and black pepper
1 3/4 lb (800 g) skinless fish fillets, such as hake or monkfish
3/4 cup (175 mL) good-quality mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 good pinch Aleppo pepper, plus more for serving
1/4 cup (10 g) chopped flat-leaf parsley

Step 1

In a wide pan over low heat, warm the olive oil. Fry the onion, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until it begins to soften. Add the chopped garlic and stir for 2 minutes, until it just begins to colour.

Step 2

Stir the saffron into the onion and pour in the fish stock and wine, then add the potatoes, fennel seeds, and orange peel and season with salt and black pepper. Simmer, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Step 3

About 10 minutes before you are ready to serve, remove the orange peel and add the fish. Cook, covered, over low heat for 4 to 10 minutes, depending on the fish and the thickness of the fillets, until the fish becomes opaque, and the flesh begins to flake when you cut into it with a knife. Break the fillets into pieces.

Step 4

In a liquid measuring cup, beat the mayonnaise with the lemon juice, crushed garlic and Aleppo pepper.

Step 5

Just before serving, add a ladleful or two of the hot stock into the mayonnaise mixture and beat it in, then gently stir into the simmering soup. Heat through but do not let it boil or the mayonnaise will curdle. Serve the bullinada sprinkled with the parsley and pass some Aleppo pepper for anyone who would like to add more.

Serves: 6

Recipe and image reprinted with permission from Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel by Claudia Roden, copyright © 2021. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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