An all-star recipe for fish stew with a Sicilian twist! The comfort of Italian flavors in one delicious stew cooked in a white wine-tomato broth with garlic, capers, raisins more!
In Italy, as in many parts of the Mediterranean basin, fish is often combined with tomatoes and other local ingredients to make delicious and quick one-pot-wonders like today’s Sicilian-style fish stew.
I’ll just come right out and say this now. This fish stew is best eaten with family and close friends because, if you eat it the right way–with crusty Italian bread to sop up the lovely sauce–it can get pretty messy. Finger-liking-good kinda messy!
This fish stew recipe is quite simple, but the balance of flavors is truly incredible. From lovely and familiar aromatics like onions and garlic–providing the glorious start to this recipe–to a hint of sweetness from golden raisins balanced with tart capers. All the while, a white wine and tomato-based broth marries everything together.
Sea bass fillet was my choice for this fish stew recipe, but you can use any firm white-fleshed fillets here.
I adapted this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s new book, The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook. Here’s a great tip I picked up: To prevent the fish from overcooking and drying out, it’s best to add the fish towards the end, when the stew is nearly done. Let it simmer until it’s partially cooked, then turn the stove off and cover the pot to let the fish finish cooking by residual heat.
Add a salad!
If you like, add a simple green salad to start the meal or try one of these:
Kindey Bean and Cilantro Salad; Mediterranean Chickpea Salad; Greek Salad or Fattoush.
More recipes to try
Mediterranean-Style Steamed Clams
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Sicilian-Style Fish Stew Recipe
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: serves 4-6 1x
Description
An all-star recipe for fish stew with a Sicilian twist! The comfort of Italian flavors in one delicious stew cooked in a white wine-tomato broth with garlic, capers, raisins more!
Ingredients
- Private Reserve extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 28-oz can whole peeled plum tomatoes, juice separated and reserved
- 3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
- 2 lb skinless sea bass fillet, about 1 1/2-inch thick, cut into large cubes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, stems removed
- 3 tbsp toasted pine nuts, optional
- Crusty Italian bread for serving
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in 5-quart Dutch oven (like this one) over medium heat. Add onions, celery, and a little salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp each). Cook, stirring regularly, until softened (about 4 minutes). Add thyme, red pepper flakes and garlic and cook briefly until fragrant (about 30 more seconds).
- Now, stir in the white wine and reserved tomato juice from can. Bring to a simmer, and cook until the liquid is reduced by about 1/2. Add the tomatoes, vegetable broth, raisins, and capers. Cook for 15-20 minutes over medium heat until flavors combine.
- Pat the fish dry and season lightly with salt and pepper. Insert the fish pieces into the cooking liquid, and give everything a gentle stir so that the fish pieces are nicely covered in the cooking liquid. Bring to a simmer and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the Dutch oven from the heat and cover. Let sit off heat for another 4-5 minutes so that the fish will finish cooking. Fish should be flaky when gently pulled apart with a paring knife. Finally, stir in the chopped parsley.
- Ladle the hot fish stew into serving bowls, top each with a few toasted pine nuts, if you like. Serve with your favorite crusty bread! Enjoy!
Notes
- Recipe adapted from The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook
- Recommended for this Recipe: Our Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil (from organically grown and processed Koroneiki olives!)
- Visit our store to browse our spices, olive oils and bundles!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Category: Entree/Soup
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Mediterranean / Sicilian
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More Recipes to Try:
Mediterranean Fish Fillet, Shakshuka Style
Mediterranean Wholre Roasted Baked Red Snapper
Greek Shrimp Recipe with Tomato and Feta
I made this last night and cut recipe in half since there were only 2 for dinner. I had cod so that is what I used. Absolutely delicious and I will be making it again and again.
Absolutely delicious. I used cod, added spinach and used currants instead of raisins as that’s what I had on hand. That pop of sweetness is incredible. This will be my go-to fish stew recipe moving forward, thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks, Rachel!
Made this for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious!! Can’t wait to make again
I enjoyed preparing it and we LOVED eating it!
I like to do with what I have on hand so I often use substitutes. I did not have any celery left but I had a leftover piece of leek, and a carrot, so that is what I used to make the base. I used grouper fillets AND added shrimp + a small jar of clams I wanted to use up from the pantry ; I also substituted thyme for rosemary (which I have a lot of). We loved the variety of seafood and the earthy flavor of the leek was a nice touch, balanced with the sweetness of the carrot.
I am impressed with your recipes and coming back often to your site. Thank you!
Flo
Thanks for sharing your adaptions, Flo!
Looks delicious. I am going to try tonight with Orange Roughy fish. We have a lot so need to use it up! Can’t wait.
Enjoy!
Full disclosure: this is going to be one of those reviews with a lot of substitutions, but it came out so fabulous that I had to comment.
I was looking for a creative way to stretch 3 white bass I caught for a house of 11 and decided to try doubling this recipe. I used San Marzano tomatoes, added some celery seed because my housemates forgot to pick up celery, and used nettle broth I had left over from foraging in place of regular vegetable broth (SUPER flavorful- an easy thing to start foraging, and something I highly recommend). The real winner, though, was the pickled pine tips I subbed for the capers. They add an amazing lemony flavor that suits the fish to a T.
So. Did I make the recipe as written? No. My version’s a little more wild. But I give props to the original recipe for being so adaptable to my favorite spring ingredients.
Sounds great, Lucy! I know it’s fun to play around with recipes :).
This was a very good recipe, and quick. Was disappointed that I had neither raisins nor capers. added carrots but that doesn’t ahve the sharpness needed here.
Used Tilapia and it works well because it has very little flavor on its own.. breaded it first.
Added Orzo to the stew and it really filled it out as a one bowl meal!
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, Joe!
I made this soup for dinner tonight. Our store only had perch fish that was fresh so I used it instead of Seabass. Instead of oil (apparently we were out of it at home!) I used humanly sourced red palm oil which I think really added something extra to the stew. But the rest I followed the recipe to the t . It turned out so good , omg ! Definitely making it next time and next time. Thank you so much for this recipe 😉
Thanks for sharing, Liv!
I am gluten free. Do you think I could add potator cubes to this stew instead of serving with bread?
Sure!
I can’t eat gluten but there’s lots of decent gluten free bread out there. Bagels also.
Just made this, cant wait to taste it. One qquestion. Does this reheat well?
Hi, Judith! It does, just be careful as not to overcook the fish in the reheating process.
I can’t rave enough about this recipe!! I like that it can be a really fancy splurge with good seafood or just a simple, inexpensive way to utilize frozen seafood you already have. It is so simple in execution that when you taste the final product…it tastes like you went to a restaurant and spent $30. The capers? Totally the unsung hero of this whole thing!
I’ve made this a couple times and both times came out amazing. I didn’t have access to sea bass, so I used shrimp, tilapia, and mussels. I cooked the shrimp and tilapia according to the recipe and threw in the mussels when I turned off the heat and covered for about 5 minutes. Crispy crunchy bread is a must…you will want to soak up every single bit of that delicious broth!!
Thanks for sharing, Angelique! Glad you enjoyed it!
This dish was fantastic. I felt transported to southern Italy or Greece. I made this with sea bass, shrimp, and calamari and upped the red pepper flakes. A crusty bread and nice crisp bottle of wine, plus a side salad rounded out the meal, but the fish stew was the ⭐️
Sounds FABULOUS! Thanks, Meg!
Fabulous! A simple and richly flavored dish and as healthy as can be. I skipped the green peppers, we don’t get along well;-) I added a good pinch of oregano, used regular raisins I had on hand and haddock. Also, I made the soup base a little earlier in the day then brought it back to just to a boil and added the fish just before dinner, following the rest of the recipe. It seems many tomato based things are sometime yummier after cooling and reheating. Can’t wait to make this again!
Thanks for sharing, Martha! So glad you enjoyed it!
This was a great recipe, I do not like raisins so I didn’t include. I also love capers so I added an extra tablespoon and also added chopped orange bell pepper with the onions and celery, and finally I added 2 pinches of red pepper flakes because I like it spicy. The base recipe is awesome and so customizable!
Thanks, Jennifer!
As my wife simply hates sultana raisins, I used dried cranberries.
Excellent results
Big Thanks
Thank for sharing! So glad you both enjoyed the recipe.
Bummer that we can’t have gluten. I will serve it on a layer of rice. Any rice reccos?
Can you get to the finished sauce stage a couple of hours ahead, reheat and add the fish?
Sure! That should work just fine!
Just had this one for dinner.
Super delicious!!
( p.s My fiance suggested to add smoked paprika and it turned out amazing!!)
So glad you enjoyed it, Shine!
The raisins and capers are genius! Fabulous recipe. Thank you