I haven’t written in a while and I do feel guilty about it. That’s how it goes when the writing follows a great food experience. I wish I could do that more frequently. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy this dish I cooked last weekend. Here’s what happened.
I went to the supermarket to do the usual weekly shopping and decided it was time I passed by the fishmonger as well. Weather is nice, full spring, for sure, some good stuff must be coming out of the sea. I get there and what do I see? Fresh squid. But not the wee ones. The real ones. 2-3 pounders. “mmmhhhh” was my first thought. My brain went immediately into “assembly” mode:
- What can I do with that?
- How should I cook it?
- What other goodies should I add to?
At first, I thought about a stew but then I saw the mussels on the side, there, just sitting quietly in their box, trying to avoid eye contact. “Too late, pals!”. There it was. Illumination. Pasta with mussels and squid. Now we were getting somewhere. Think about it: fuming spaghetti, with bits of squid and fresh tomato, all topped with splendid mussels in their shells. Still, I felt that something was missing. Think. Think. Think. Then I remembered that mussels go splendidly with strong, salty tastes, like pecorino. Have no pecorino. Have bottarga. Jackpot!
You might wonder: what is bottarga? It’s very simple, it’s roe. Caviar of the poor. There are two kinds sold in Italy: tuna and grey mullet roe. Tuna is more expensive, yet tastier and more sought for. I do have both, but my tuna one is fresh, thus I need to use it before it gets destroyed.
Anyway, we now have a dish in the planning and we can start cooking. First, we need to clean the squid and the mussels. Mussels are simple. First of all check that they are alive. To do that, see that they are closed when taking them off the bag. If they are open, “bang” them against the table and make sure that they “react” by closing the valves. If that doesn’t happen a few bangs, throw that shell away. Once they are closed, remove the “beard” by pulling it off the beast.
Squids are a bit more difficult. I asked my fishmonger to clean mine, but he didn’t a proper job and I had ink all over my kitchen. So make sure that everything is removed properly and keep the tentacles!
Start boiling the water for the pasta.
OK, now: prepare a base for the mussels. I used a big deep pot where I added some olive oil, to finely chopped sticks of celery, to chopped leeks, 2 cloves of garlic and 2 glassesand let it all blend and golden up. When that was the case (about 10 minutes), I added 2 glasses of chardonnay (or any white wine you have around) and threw in the mussles. Close the lid and cook slowly for about 15 minutes or until you think they are cooked. The lid is important, as it allows for a proper “sterilisation” of the mussel shells, by entrapping the high temperature steam in the pot.
Next, let’s prepare the squid. First of all, take the squid and chop it into small pieces (like 1×0.5 cm for example), including tentacles. Wash it all nicely under a lot of water. Now, in a wide and tallish pan, crush 2 cloves of garlic, add 2-3 tbsp of olive oil and warm it up. Cut a few thin slices of the bottarga, chop into as finely as you can and add it to the oil/garlic mix. Stir for 5 minutes and then add the squid and half a glass of white wine.
Cook at high temp for 5 minutes, turn down the heat and wait until the next step is ready. In the meantime, get some tomatoes and chop them finely.
Now, it gets “complicated” 
At this point, the water should be boiling, thus throw the pasta in. Take the mussels off their broth and toss them in the frying pan. Pass the broth through a sieve and put the liquid back in the pot. When the pasta is half cooked (let’s say 5 minutes) take it off that water and finish cooking it in the mussels broth. Just before it’s ready, drain it, put it back in the pan, add the fish together with the finely diced tomatoes.
Ready. Crack open another bottle of white (I love Chablis or Greco di Tufo with these dishes) and enjoy. I loved it!!! Foodgasmic!!!!
Here’s the “precise” list of ingredients:
- Olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 500 grams of spaghetti
- 1.5 kg of fresh mussels
- 1kg of fresh squid
- 5 tomatoes
- 3 slices of tuna bottarga
- 2 sticks of celery
- 2 leeks
- half a bottle of white wine
- a lot of hunger
- a love for good food
Article first published as Pasta With Squid, Mussels, Tuna Roe And Fresh Tomato on Blogcritics.
Had my only blog follower “begging” me to add more recipes to the site. Here’s a quick and easy one, for when you are uninspired and hungry.
You’ll need good quality spaghetti, a can of tuna in oil (not the mini ones, but the normal sized cans), olive oil, a lemon, as much garlic as you can deal with (usually 2-3 thingies) and, optional, parley, capers and black olives.
Put the water onto the fire, allow to boil and “throw” the pasta. While it’s cooking, cut your garlic extra small and put it in a bowl. Add the tuna and the juice of the lemon (you can start with half of it and adjust as you like). You can add some capers or black olives if you want. When the pasta is “al dente”, ie: one minute before the time written on the packaging, drain it and toss it into the bowl. Mix well, add olive oil ad libidum and the chopped parsley.
Serve and eat hot, warm, cold, however you like
I love this dish. Cheap and easy and very tasty. And reminds me of the good’ole times when living in Rome alone with my brother.
Enjoy!
Hello fellow eaters,
I was getting bored at home today and after a bit of thinking, I decided to prepare some fresh pesto. You see, I have this pot of basil in the kitchen which is getting quite big. I bought it 3 months ago at the local supermarket and never thought it would last too long (these guys usually don’t last more than a couple of weeks). Anyway, since these “branches” were getting hard and old, I thought that I could take the older ones and try to make some pesto with them leaves. Better than letting them die.
So, I picked up all the leaves (about two handfulls) and washed them carefully in cold water and dried them in a clean cloth. 
While the leaves are getting a rest, I peeled 3 cloves of garlic and blended them together with a pinch of coarse salt. I then added the basil leaves, a bit at a time, and kept blending in short pulses (to avoid too much heating up of the mix). Continued adding a handful of walnuts (should be pine nuts, but walnuts are accepted by the purists) and a half handful of parmigiano reggiano.
Finally, and ONLY at this stage, I added my olive oil. I kept pouring until the whole thing became nicely wet and creamy. This is really important: adding the oil while blending will modify the taste, as the heat generated by the machine will somehow “ruin” it. Trust me, I git this tip from people having lived in Genova for all their lives. And I guess that in Genova, they know their pesto 
Ok, since I had the pesto, I cooked some pasta (try adding a diced potato in the water, you’ll see) and ate the whole thing. Tasty it was. Need more!!!
(grazie Giamaica)
As I tend to write at night, I tend to stick to the simple dishes. I will soon get into more complex things. Anyway, this sauce is one of my favourites and I have to thank the “master” Alan for it. for being a Brit, his puttanesca would make any mamma proud
So here’s how I make it. Might not be exactly how he does it, but pretty close.
- I golden 2-3 garlic thingies in a spash of olive oil, add a can of Pastene anchovies and 2-3 teaspoons of capers. Can add a bit of chilly, if you like that.
- When the anchovies have melted, I add a handfull of chopped black olives and give it ~ 3-5′ to all nicely blend and cook together, constantly making sure not to burn anything ie: stirring every once in a while
- I then add a big can of tomatoes and let simmer at medium, medium low for as long as possible. I usually try to get this cooking for at least an hour. You ideally want the water in the tomatoes to go away and just keep the tasty stuff.
- When you feel ready to eat, cook your pasta, drain it one minute before perfection, toss it into the sauce and finish cooking it while stirring it at good heat.
- Pop open a bottle of the good stuff.
- Eat
Very simple, very tasty, very leker.
Ok guys, enough. just to make things clear once and for all: THERE IS NO CREAM IN CARBONARA! just eggs, pecorino, parmigiano (and not parmiGGiano, like Jamie effing oliver writes it), pepper, guanciale and, I do add it, garlic. I personally love rigatoni to go with the sauce. Others like penne or spaghetti.
Here we go:
(this is for 2-3 people)
- start put a lot of water in a big pot and start boiling it
- take some oil, fry in a thingy of garlic and, when nicely golden, add the guanciale (3-4 slices cut in small pieces or cubes) and fry it until the fat has turned transparent. If you can’t find guanciale (I miss it, god if I miss it), use the best possible bacon you can put your hands on.
- while the pig is frying, break an egg in a bowl, start beating it (poor fellah) and add the grated cheese. Enough that the whole thing becomes dense and thick, but not as much as to turn the egg into a clump (I usually add.. boh… enough). Add enough pepper to make he cream start looking darkish. If you feel daring, you can add an extra egg red, for more taste.
- I am starting to realise that I have no clue on the amounts I use.. all done by eye. Sorry about it.
Now, we have the bacon ready, the egg/cheese/pepper “sauce” ready. Water is boiling, add salt in the water and then throw the pasta (half a kilo should suffice). One minute the pasta is ready, drain it aaaaaaaaaaaaannnd, here comes the hard part (and this is why philistines use cream):
- quickly toss the pasta in the sauce bowl and mix it quite rapidly
- toss the whole thing in the frying pan where the bacon is and mix th whole thing even more rapidly. The point here is to avoid turning the egg into an omelette. Should remain creamy and gooey. You can appreciate why incompetent cooks prefer to use the damned cream. Won’t omelettise
- Once you are happy with the creamyness of the egg, serve hot, with a bottle of red
I just realise this was a lousy way of explaining the dish, but I am tired. Next time I make it, I’ll take a few pictures and measures, so that I’ll be a bit more professional.
And, BTW, this here IS NOT carbonara:
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Compliments to the Chef