Patrizia Volanti, Al Mastin Vecchio, Verrucchio (RN)

Sous chef and pastry chef of Al Mastin Vecchio di Verrucchio, after leaving the stoves of Papaveri and Mare di San Vincenzo (LI), Patrizia offers a fresh seafood cuisine that is based on what the market offers daily, dishes with clear flavors, captivating and light where the raw material is always at the center.

Scorpion fish in carpione with roasted Vesuvian tomatoes, broth of rockfish and anchovy jus

Ingredients for 4 people

For the scorpion fish in carpione 

8 small scorpionfish

00 flour to taste

Chopped spring onion to taste

Chopped parsley to taste

20 ml white wine vinegar

20 ml extra virgin olive oil

Chopped chili pepper to taste

Fine salt to taste

Milled black pepper to taste

500 ml vegetable oil

For the fish broth

The heads of the scorpion fish

2 tub gurnards

2 big red mullets

500 g Piccadilly tomatoes

1 golden onion

1 bunch of basil

4 sprigs of thyme

50 ml extra virgin olive oil

10 g corn starch

For the roasted Vesuvian tomatoes 

4 Vesuvian tomatoes

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

For the anchovy dressing 

100 g anchovies in oil

30 ml water

30 ml vegetable oil

For sweet and sour borettane onions

4 borrettane onions

Extra virgin olive oil

3 g sugar

3 g salt

15 g white wine vinegar

Assembly

Scorpion fish

Vesuvian tomatoes

Fish broth

Anchovy jus

Basil to garnish

Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Scale the fish and remove the head, entrails and gills. Wash the heads abundantly and keep them aside to make the soup. Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan at 180 ° C and fry the floured scorpion fish until they are crispy and hard.

Dry them well and season them with vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, fine salt, black pepper, chopped spring onion and parsley and chili pepper to taste.

Clean the red mullets and the tub gurnards by removing the entrails and gills, rinsing them thoroughly.

Finely slice the onion, brown it in a large pot with extra virgin olive oil, add the Piccadilly tomatoes cut into 4 and brown a little more. Add the fish, lightly braze, add thyme and basil, cover with water and bring to the boil slowly, frothing often. Cook for two hours then filter the liquid and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Tie the soup with the corn starch dissolved in a little water and adjust the flavors with salt and pepper. The soup is ready when you sail the spoon.

Wash and cut the tomatoes into 4 and roast them in the oven with extra virgin olive oil, salt and black pepper at 180 ° C for about 8 minutes.

Prepare the anchovy dressing. Blend all the ingredients together with a blender until you get a nice smooth emulsion. Pour it into a bottle.

Peel the onions and boil them in water until they are tender.

Sauté them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil until golden brown, add the salt now, blend with the vinegar and complete adding the sugar to caramelize.

Place alternately the scorpionfish in carpione, the roasted Vesuvian tomatoes and the Borrettane onions in bittersweet cut in half.

Pour the hot soup into the side of the plate, drip the anchovy and extra virgin olive oil jus and garnish with fresh basil.