Italian Seafood Stew

 Stew in mid-August? No thank you.  Seafood stew? Well, now that you mention it...

Italian seafood stew, tomato-based and chock full of just about any seafood you want, is one of my favorite dishes that I have made this summer.  I used a recipe from Marco Canora's Salt to Taste, spiking the tomatoes with plenty of lemon and tossing in calamari, little neck clams, mussels, shrimp. and cod.  However, hot summer days are not meant to be spent fretting over recipes, so toss in whatever spices and seafood you like.  Just keep main components the same-- a soffrito of celery, fennel, and onions, a can of crushed tomatoes, a splash of white wine, and some perfectly cooked seafood-- and you are guaranteed a great seafood stew that, when washed down with a crisp white wine, just might take you from a small studio apartment to a beach on the Amalfi Coast.  Unfortunately for this New Yorker, I was quickly awakened from my dream by a truck barreling down Second Avenue, but I plan to revisit it by making this stew at least one more time this summer.