This soup recipe uses every part of the fish, from its head all the way to its tail.
Meat from the sea bream fillets will be used for simple fish balls, while the rest of the fish will be used to make a fantastic fish stock that will serve as the basis for the fish soup.
The only trick that is good to remember for preparing fish balls from one ingredient is to use fresh fish.
Sea bream needs to be filleted first. The easiest and fastest way to fillet the fish is to start from the head.
Cut the sea bream under its small belly fin and make an incision along the entire length of the fish to the top of its head. Make the same cut on the opposite side. With stronger pressure of the knife, cut the main bone and separate the head from the rest of the body. Keep the head, as well as all the other unused parts of the sea bream.
Cut the belly of the fish, and with careful movements of the knife continue to cut the sea bream along the spine and towards the tail. When you reach the tail, the sea bream fillet will open like a book. Separate the other, lower fillet in the same way. Cut the ribs from each fillet with a knife, and pull out the rest of the bones that may have remained using tweezers. Repeat the same procedure with the other sea bream.
Use a fork to scrape the meat from the sea bream fillet off the skin and put it into an electric chopper. Season the sea bream meat with salt and pepper, and you can also add leaves of fresh parsley to the chopper. Grind the meat into a thick sticky paste (for about 30 seconds).
Moisten your hands with cold water so that the fish does not stick to your fingers, and use your palms to form fish balls of the desired size. Keep them in the refrigerator until you need them to finish the soup.
Sauté the finely chopped onion in olive oil in a deep pot. As soon as the onion becomes translucent, add the fish heads, bones, and other parts of sea bream that were left after the filleting of the fish. Sauté the fish on all sides, then add grated carrot and chopped parsley leaf to the pot. Add just enough liquid to cover all the ingredients. Let the fish stock simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes, then remove the fish bones from the pot. The fish meat should separate from the bones, but if that doesn’t happen, you can scrape some of the meat by hand and put it back in the pot. Add a little rice to the pot, season to taste and add more water. Let the soup cook for an additional 15 minutes, adding the fish balls in the last 5 minutes. As soon as they surface, you will know they are cooked.
Serve the soup warm. Bon appétit!