Jamie Oliver Sicilian Fish Soup

Jamie Oliver’s Sicilian fish soup simmers a soffritto of onion, celery, fennel, garlic and chilli in white wine, tomatoes and fish stock with grated butternut squash for 30 minutes, then adds chunked salmon, halibut and prawns for a final 10. It serves six, takes just over an hour, and comes in at 265 kcal. It’s dairy-free, gluten-free and built for a crowd.

Oliver calls this the best fish soup in the world, and the grated squash is the trick that earns the claim. He says he picked it up in Sicily: grating the butternut squash directly into the broth means it dissolves completely during the 30-minute simmer, thickening the soup and adding a natural sweetness and golden colour without cream, flour or any visible trace of squash.

The fennel in the soffritto is the other Sicilian touch. It adds a subtle aniseed note to the base that lifts the tomato and fish stock, working in the same register as the fennel seeds that appear in many Sicilian fish dishes. Between the fennel, the grated squash and the white wine, the broth is layered and complex before the fish even goes in.

Jamie Oliver Sicilian Fish Soup

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Soups, Lunch, DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

265

kcal

Total time

55

minutes

Jamie Oliver’s Sicilian fish soup: salmon, halibut and prawns simmered in a tomato, white wine and fish stock broth with grated butternut squash for sweetness and colour. A Sicilian trick, a big-batch soup for six, 265 kcal a bowl.

Ingredients

• 1 red onion

• 2 celery sticks

• ½ a small fennel bulb

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 red chilli, deseeded

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

• a glass of dry white wine

• 800g chopped plum tomatoes or passata

• ½ a butternut squash, peeled and grated

• 500ml organic fish stock

• 200g salmon fillet, from sustainable sources, skinned

• 300g halibut fillet, from sustainable sources, skinned

• 12 raw peeled prawns or langoustine tails, from sustainable sources

• ½ a lemon

• a large handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

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Directions

• Make the base:Finely chop the onion, celery, fennel, garlic and chilli. Heat the oil in a large pan, add everything and sweat gently until soft.
• Build the broth:Add the wine, tomatoes or passata, grated squash and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Season and break up the tomatoes gently.
• Add the fish:Roughly chop the salmon and halibut and add to the pan with the prawns or langoustine tails. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until just cooked through.
• Season and serve:Taste, season again with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice if needed. Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Notes

• Note: Grating the butternut squash into the soup is a trick Oliver picked up in Sicily. It dissolves during the simmer, giving the broth good colour and natural sweetness without any visible squash.

FAQs

Why grate the butternut squash instead of chopping it?

Because grated squash dissolves completely during the 30-minute simmer, becoming part of the broth rather than sitting in it as chunks. It thickens the soup naturally and adds a golden colour and gentle sweetness without cream, flour or any visible trace of vegetable. Chopped squash would stay in pieces and change the character of the soup entirely.

Oliver says he saw this trick in Sicily, where grated vegetables disappearing into broths is a traditional technique for building body without heaviness. It’s the same principle behind grating onion (which Oliver does in his sardine linguine from 20-Minute Meals): grated aromatics dissolve and flavour the whole dish rather than sitting as identifiable pieces.

Can I use different fish?

Yes, as long as you keep a mix of firm and flaky. Oliver uses salmon (rich, oily), halibut (firm, meaty) and prawns (sweet, delicate), which gives three different textures and flavours in one bowl. Swap cod or haddock for the halibut, trout for the salmon, and any raw prawn or langoustine for the shellfish.

Avoid anything too delicate that falls apart in a 10-minute simmer: sole and plaice would disintegrate. The fish goes in chopped roughly, which is deliberate: big, rustic chunks are part of the Sicilian character, not neat restaurant portions.

How is this different from your other Oliver fish soups?

It’s a slow-built, Italian-style soup for six, completely different from his fragrant spicy fish soup from Simply Jamie, which is a 13-minute Keralan-inspired coconut broth for two. This one has no coconut milk, no curry paste, and simmers for 40 minutes. The Sicilian uses wine, tomato, fennel and grated squash; the Keralan uses curry paste, coconut and lime.

The Sicilian version is the bigger, more generous, slower soup for a dinner party. The fragrant version is the fast weeknight one. Both are excellent, and having both on the site gives readers a genuine choice.

What white wine should I use?

Dry and crisp: Pinot Grigio, Vermentino or any dry Italian white is ideal and keeps the Sicilian theme. Avoid anything sweet or oaky. A glass is roughly 150ml, and the alcohol cooks off during the 30-minute simmer, leaving only the acidity and fruit behind.

If you’d rather not use wine, a squeeze of extra lemon juice and a splash of white wine vinegar added with the stock approximate the sharpness the wine provides. The wine’s job is to deglaze and add acidity to the base, not to make the soup taste boozy.

Can I make it ahead?

The broth base, up to the point where the fish goes in, freezes beautifully and keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Make the soffritto, add the wine, tomatoes, squash and stock, simmer for 30 minutes, then cool and store. When you’re ready, reheat the broth and add the fresh fish for the final 10 minutes.

Never freeze or refrigerate the soup with the fish already in it, since reheated fish turns rubbery and overcooked. The fresh-fish-in-hot-broth step should always be done to order. This makes it an excellent dinner party soup: all the prep is done, and the fish goes in 10 minutes before you sit down.

What should I serve it with?

Crusty bread for dunking is the classic accompaniment, and specifically the kind of bread that soaks up the tomato-wine broth without falling apart. A warm ciabatta, sourdough or a proper Italian pane is ideal.

For a fuller Italian-themed meal, this soup works as a starter before something simple, since it’s light at 265 kcal. Or serve it as the main in deeper bowls with the bread and a green salad. For a different Oliver soup on the site, his bread and borlotti bean soup takes a similar rustic, Italian one-pot approach but with beans and stale bread instead of fish.