Easy Fish Stew With Mediterranean Flavors

I've made this about 100 times and I have a couple tricks that are game changing.
1: Add some white wine after the tomatoes and anchovies
2: Use Italian seasoned canned tomatoes.
3: With the white wine (before water) add a like 6-8 oz clam juice.
4: let it simmer about 2x as long as recipe says before adding the fish

We enjoy this quick, healthy, one-pot meal. I add 2 small zucchini and some mushrooms to the mix.

And as previous reviewer mentioned the bouquet garni got truncated somewhere along the line! [Which I put in a tea ball.]
“A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a strip of orange zest, a couple of sprigs each thyme and parsley, a a dried red chile if desired, tied together with a string”

As Roz said, 2-3 cups of water only.
And the chopped parsley as a garnish is the finishing touch.

Strikingly good for the effort.
Unfortunately the ingredients list leaves out the parsley, mentioned in the last step, which really completes the dish. I use about 1/3 cup of coarsely chopped parsley.

This is a fantastic recipe and comes out great every time I make it. Worth the effort/time for sure.

Note: Looks like the ingredient list broke since I last saved it. Here's the bouquet garni in full:

"A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a strip of orange zest, a couple of sprigs each thyme and parsley, and a dried red chile if desired, tied together with a string"

Totally agree with Tom - put the fish in in large pieces & let it cook. It will break up nicely as you stir the soup.

I like to leave the filets whole because they break into attractive pieces when they have cooked through.

Hi
One funny thing
My first attempt at the garni thing
Wrapped thyme etc in a bundle
Pulled hard to break thread I found in my wife's sewing room
Did not know it was apholstery thread
Almost amputated both pinkies
All is well

My Italian grandmother used to make a similar stew. I added her touches: a chopped fennel bulb and some saffron. I used Petrale Sole as the fish, which is similar to the flounder that she used. This is a very versatile dish. Very easy and extremely satisfying. I served it with grilled Italian bread and a big green salad.

Thanks to Paul for recomendation, some notes..
I trippled the orginal cooking time, I could not get the potatos to cook.
I added italian seasoning liberaly
Added a light amount of tumeric
Doubled anchovies and did not soak them, gave a good fish flavor, or else stew is slightly less bland.
I trippled the garlic as it gets overwhelmed by the anchovies.
Huge thanks to the author of this recipe.

It's to bad some of the readers can't appreciate this base recipe. It reminds me of the fish soups at the restaurant my father managed in Port San Luis . I would sneak into the prep station, and help when he was busy with the boats unloading fish. Those soups were worth getting smacked. This one reminds me of those.You can add to it,but it's perfect by itself. Maybe the other reader seared his families taste buds off with his previous attemps.

This was easy and flavorful. I used unsalted broth instead of water, which turned out well. I only had anchovy paste, so I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of it in place of the fillets. I took Paul's advice and added about 1/2 cup white wine to deglaze after sautéing the vegetables - we loved the flavor it added.

Rather than a bouquet garni, I put a loose bayleaf and 2 Tbsp. minced fresh thyme in.

I garnished with fresh chopped parsley and a little grated parmesan. Amazing!

you can put the bouquet garni in a tea ball, super easy to clean up.

To those commenting about cost of fish: if you have a Trader Joe's near you, I just made this with wild Alaska cod pieces, only $3.99/lb in the frozen section. That is perfect for this type of dish where you want to end up with pieces anyway. An amazing price for top quality fish, and no, I don't work for or have any connection to TJ, just a very loyal customer:) Thanks Paul for comment about wine/clam juice et al, that was super helpful.

This is wonderful! Added shrimp and clams just before serving (just long enough to cook each) the second time I made this and served at a dinner party. It was a huge hit. Keep stirring to a minimum to prevent fish from breaking into chunks that are too small.

I have now made this six times -- or the one with kale. These are delicious soups. I don't soak and rinse the anchovies. What is the purpose of doing that? Am I leaving out an important step?

I used crushed tomatoes rather than chopped tomatoes. The broth was a hearty tomato stock. As others indicated more anchovies and some white wine help a lot. Additionally, a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes and a dash of soy sauce help the complexity of flavor. I used lemon rind rather than orange rind and gave a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end. Final substitution - several fresh shrimp with their shells on and some calamari tubes and tentacles and only 1/2 lb of cod.