I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

This is a basic fish soup or stew with a Mediterranean feel. You can use almost any fish or combination of fish that you like. Ideally, you'd drop by the fishmonger and see what was fresh, cheap and looked good. I did, well sort of - I used some squid I had in the freezer and then went to the store and found that the scallops were speaking to me. Not literally, of course, scallops can't speak, but I thought they looked good and would go well with the squid.

The leftover soup reheats fairly well, and for a change you could use it as a pasta sauce if there's not enough for a meal on its own. That worked a treat, let me tell you.

• 1 large onion
• 3 roma tomatoes (or other tomatoes)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 of a lemon
• 1/2 bottle of white wine
• 1/2 pound cleaned squid
• 1/2 pound small scallops
• handfull of fresh parsley

Add the quarter of a lemon, giving it a squeeze and catching the pips as you do, and the half of a bottle of white wine. I used a Pinot Grigio. Make sure it's a wine you'd be happy drinking, since I recommend drinking the other half with the finished soup. Bring that up to a simmer and add the squid. Simmer for about two minutes and then add the scallops. Simmer for another two or three minutes, which should be enough to cook the scallops through. If yours are larger than mine were, they might need another minute or two.

Fish out the lemon quarter and remove the soup from the heat. Ladle it into bowls, garnish with parsley and another slice of lemon, and serve with fresh hot bread and a green salad.