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1
Cut the fish into 4- to 5-inch chunks and pat dry.
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2
Rinse the anchovies.
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3
Remove their heads and bones, dry on paper towels, and crush lightly with a fork.
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4
In a very large terra-cotta or enameled cast-iron casserole over a medium flame, heat 1 cup of the oil and soften the onion to translucence.
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5
Add the anchovies and garlic, rolling them about in the oil for 1 minute, taking care not to color the garlic.
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6
Add the fish, a few pieces at a time, sauteing each lightly and removing to a plate.
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7
Next add the prawns, in two batches if necessary, turning them about until their shells turn angry red.
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8
Remove the prawns to the plate with the fish.
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9
Now add the tomatoes, sea salt, chile, and wine, bringing it all to a simmer, stirring it forcefully to loosen any bits lolling at the bottom of the pan.
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10
Permit the sauce to cook, reducing, for 10 to 15 minutes while you warm the remaining olive oil and quickly brown the bread on both sides.
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11
Keep the bread hot in the same low oven where the bowls in which youll present the soup are warming.
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12
Acquaint the fish and the prawns with their sauce, permitting them to cook over the gentlest flame, the sauce barely simmering, for 3 or 4 minutes.
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13
Carry the cocciocasseroleto table.
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14
Place a trencher of bread in the bottom of each warmed, shallow bowl and cover it with several pieces of fish and a pair of prawns that youve retrieved with a slotted spoon.
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15
Then ladle over all some of the good broth.
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16
Frowning faces, pouting lips coated in golden crumbs, have instructed me to saute double or triple the amount of bread that might otherwise content my companions.
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17
It is a good thing, too, to double the wine rations for the feast.
