Lunch: Sea Creature Soup with Slime Aioli

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil, to saute
1 1/2 pounds smoked chorizo, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
4 onions, chopped
10 cloves garlic, chopped
2 small heads fennel, halved and sliced thinly
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
2 fresh bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups dry white wine
4 (14-ounce) cans whole tomatoes
2 gallons fish stock
4 (1-pound) lobsters, quartered
2 pounds blue crabs, halved
2 pounds Littleneck clams, scrubbed
4 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 pounds squid, cleaned
1 pint shucked oysters, with liquid
2 pounds head-on shrimp
1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
Slime Aioli, recipe follows
French bread, sliced

Instructions

Heat a large pot over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat. Add the chorizo and cook until some of the fat is rendered and the chorizo starts to brown. Add the onions, garlic, fennel, and red pepper flakes and cook until the onions begin to brown, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add the bay leaves and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Deglaze with the white wine. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pot, until the wine is reduced by 1/4, about 10 minutes. Break up the tomatoes with your hands into the pot. Add tomatoes and juices and the fish stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Return to high heat and add the lobsters and crabs, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the clams and mussels, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the squid, oysters, and shrimp, cover and cook another 5 minutes, or until all of the shellfish open and the shrimp are cooked through. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Spread the aioli on toasted French bread slices and serve with the soup.