Usually I don't really cook seafood, although I love eating it. I've always found it a bit intimidating. But a few weeks Mum made a spaghetti with clams that was so delicious that I knew I would have to try it myself. It was definitely a dish to be perfected in order to later impress friends and acquaintances. So today I had the day off and it seemed like a great day to attempt an impressive menu, even if it was just for me and Luis.
So, this morning Luis and I trundled off to the central market to seek out the woman who called him 'corazon' last time he was buying fish. She was great - loudly handing out a free prawn here and a clam there to make sure everyone returned. When all she needed to do with Luis was call him 'corazon' a couple of times. Anyhoo, we got our clams (almejas, if you're interested) and I also spotted some apricots for pud. Oooh, popping off to the food market and making food with whatever's about - I feel like a proper food writer!!
Right, so, spaghetti alle vongole. Out of the fabulous book by Marcella Hazan, entitled "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' (which contains another of my favourites, sweet and sour tuna). Very much recommended, both the recipe and the book. The recipe is not quick, but it's really quite simple. And totally delicious. Perfect for a lazy Friday when you've wangled the day off to spend with the fella.
18 live clams in their shells (this didn't seem enough for us, so we got 500g, and was not too much at all)
5 tablespons extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced paper thin (or just thin, in my case!)
1 and a half tablespoons chopped parsley
chopped hot red chilli pepper, 2 teaspoons or to taste
1 fresh, ripe, firm plum tomato, cut into 1cm dice with skin on, but drained out juice and all seeds removed (well, I never thought I'd say this, but more tomato might be good)
100 ml dry white wine (the rest of it, of course, is for drinking as you cook!)
450g spaghetti or spaghettini (thin spaghetti)
6 fresh basil leaves torn into 2 or 3 pieces
Well, the book gives long instructions about cleaning the clams, but the ones I bought were pretty clean already. But if they're not the thing to do is soak them for 5 mins in cold water, then replace the water, scrub with a stiff brush, replace the water again and scrub again, until there's no more sand at the bottom of the sink. Either way, any that stay open when handled should be chucked out.
Put the clams in a pan broad enough that they are no more that 3 deep, cover and turn the heat to high. Turn them over regularly and remove them from the pan when they open their shells.
This was all very cool, but the recipe requires 'clam juices' later on and they didn't seem to be appearing, so I added a bit of water, which also helped the clams to open. The recipe also says strain the juices through kitchen paper but that was totally not necessary in my case.
Remove the meat from the shells. and chop in half. Put them in a small bowl, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over them, cover the bowl tightly with cling film and set aside for later (I'd obviously had too much wine by that point as completely missed that part, but didn't seem to matter!)
Choose a sautee pan big enough to fit the pasta later and put in 3 tablespoons olive oil and the garlic, turning the heat to medium high. Stir the garlic for a few seconds, then add the parsley and the chilli pepper. Stir once or twice and added the diced tomato. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring from time to time, then add the wine. Simmer for 30 seconds then turn it off.
Cook the pasta until it's nearly done, but still slightly stiff. Turn the heat back on
under the sautee pan and add the pasta immediately. Add the clam juice and cook, mixing the pasta until it is completely cooked. Add the clams and oil and the basil leaves, toss and serve immediately.
Mmmmmm. Delicious. And follow just a couple of hours later with an apricot tarte tatin, swiped from another food blog (see here), which in turned swiped it from a German food magazine. In fact, my apricot tarte tatin went wrong in many different ways, but the good thing I find with many desserts is that they still taste good in the end. Let me just warn you that the caramel goes solid almost immediately, so you've got to be speedy. And my pastry seemed very wet, but tasted pretty good. Next time I'll leave it in a bit longer to make sure I get the caramelised bit at the top. But between the two of us we polished it off sharpish, so it was quite a success really.
So there we go. Would very much recommend both recipes as easy and very delicious, especially with copious amounts of white wine and a couple of episodes of Six Feet Under, or whatever decent TV you can get your hands on.
So, this morning Luis and I trundled off to the central market to seek out the woman who called him 'corazon' last time he was buying fish. She was great - loudly handing out a free prawn here and a clam there to make sure everyone returned. When all she needed to do with Luis was call him 'corazon' a couple of times. Anyhoo, we got our clams (almejas, if you're interested) and I also spotted some apricots for pud. Oooh, popping off to the food market and making food with whatever's about - I feel like a proper food writer!!
Right, so, spaghetti alle vongole. Out of the fabulous book by Marcella Hazan, entitled "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' (which contains another of my favourites, sweet and sour tuna). Very much recommended, both the recipe and the book. The recipe is not quick, but it's really quite simple. And totally delicious. Perfect for a lazy Friday when you've wangled the day off to spend with the fella. 18 live clams in their shells (this didn't seem enough for us, so we got 500g, and was not too much at all)
5 tablespons extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced paper thin (or just thin, in my case!)
1 and a half tablespoons chopped parsley
chopped hot red chilli pepper, 2 teaspoons or to taste
1 fresh, ripe, firm plum tomato, cut into 1cm dice with skin on, but drained out juice and all seeds removed (well, I never thought I'd say this, but more tomato might be good)
100 ml dry white wine (the rest of it, of course, is for drinking as you cook!)
450g spaghetti or spaghettini (thin spaghetti)
6 fresh basil leaves torn into 2 or 3 pieces
Well, the book gives long instructions about cleaning the clams, but the ones I bought were pretty clean already. But if they're not the thing to do is soak them for 5 mins in cold water, then replace the water, scrub with a stiff brush, replace the water again and scrub again, until there's no more sand at the bottom of the sink. Either way, any that stay open when handled should be chucked out.
Put the clams in a pan broad enough that they are no more that 3 deep, cover and turn the heat to high. Turn them over regularly and remove them from the pan when they open their shells.
This was all very cool, but the recipe requires 'clam juices' later on and they didn't seem to be appearing, so I added a bit of water, which also helped the clams to open. The recipe also says strain the juices through kitchen paper but that was totally not necessary in my case.
Remove the meat from the shells. and chop in half. Put them in a small bowl, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over them, cover the bowl tightly with cling film and set aside for later (I'd obviously had too much wine by that point as completely missed that part, but didn't seem to matter!)
Choose a sautee pan big enough to fit the pasta later and put in 3 tablespoons olive oil and the garlic, turning the heat to medium high. Stir the garlic for a few seconds, then add the parsley and the chilli pepper. Stir once or twice and added the diced tomato. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring from time to time, then add the wine. Simmer for 30 seconds then turn it off.
Cook the pasta until it's nearly done, but still slightly stiff. Turn the heat back on
under the sautee pan and add the pasta immediately. Add the clam juice and cook, mixing the pasta until it is completely cooked. Add the clams and oil and the basil leaves, toss and serve immediately. Mmmmmm. Delicious. And follow just a couple of hours later with an apricot tarte tatin, swiped from another food blog (see here), which in turned swiped it from a German food magazine. In fact, my apricot tarte tatin went wrong in many different ways, but the good thing I find with many desserts is that they still taste good in the end. Let me just warn you that the caramel goes solid almost immediately, so you've got to be speedy. And my pastry seemed very wet, but tasted pretty good. Next time I'll leave it in a bit longer to make sure I get the caramelised bit at the top. But between the two of us we polished it off sharpish, so it was quite a success really.
So there we go. Would very much recommend both recipes as easy and very delicious, especially with copious amounts of white wine and a couple of episodes of Six Feet Under, or whatever decent TV you can get your hands on.
