Fish & Seafood Archives - Very EATalian

Sicilian Pasta with Sardines

August 10, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

These days I’m a little obsessed with Sicilian cuisine, mostly because I recently met a lady who, just like me, is married to a Sicilian man and has a great passion for food. It didn’t take a long time until she started sharing recipes she inherited from her mother-in-law. Few days later, a bunch of Sicilian ingredients started flowing into my kitchen.

When I told her I wanted to make Pasta con le Sarde (one of Sicily’s signature dishes), she sent me two key ingredients to make it: a bag of uvetta passolina from Palermo (Zante currants) and a bunch of finocchietto selvatico (wild fennel). As if that wasn’t kind enough, she also included a handwritten recipe. I love it when people take time to write. I love it even more if they write about food!

Pasta con Sarde, as the names suggests, is made with sardines. Sardines are plentiful in Sicily and much cheaper than other fish – it’s no wonder it’s used in many peasant cooking dishes. The recipe also includes other ingredients such as pine nuts, anchovies, onion, and saffron…sounds Middle Eastern, doesn’t it? The legend says the recipe was created by the cooks of an Arab conqueror who landed in Sicily back in 827. The cooks, in an effort to muster up food for the troops, caught sardines in the harbor, harvested wild fennel, currants and pine nuts from the surrounding land and combined all the ingredients, creating a unique and intriguing flavor palette… it’s sweet and salty, slightly tangy, and definitely aromatic. It perfectly represents Sicily, a beautiful island with such a peculiar heritage.

Everybody loved it here. My dad had seconds and even had leftovers the following day! That’s another great things about this pasta…It makes great leftovers; just make sure you cook it al dente to begin with. Then, the next day, sprinkle it with some slivered almonds and bake it for a few minutes. I know some of these ingredients aren’t available in other parts of the world but you can easily substitute wild fennel with regular fennel and Zante currants with raisins. Unless you’re able to travel to Palermo, that’s the easiest way to bring a little bit of Sicily to your table.

Sicilian Pasta con le Sarde

Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

45 mins

Recipe type: Pasta

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 lb (450 g) whole fresh sardines
a bunch of wild fennel (or 3 baby fennel bulbs, fronds included)
1 medium onion, chopped
a handful of Zante currants
3 anchovy fillets
⅓ cup (40 g) pine nuts
a pinch of saffron
320 g bucatini pasta
2 Tbsp toasted breadcrumbs
salt
pepper

Instructions

Clean sardines: Rinse sardines under cold water, gently scraping the skin toward the head to remove the scales. Remove head by pulling it backward, toward the spine. Hold the fish with one hand and with the other, pull the backbone from the head, carefully lifting it up and away from the fillet; discard it. Rinse each fillet under cold water and set aside.
Discard rough parts of wild fennel and boil fronds in water for a few minutes until softer (if using regular fennel, cook it until tender - about 10 minutes). With a slotted spoon, drain fennel, reserving cooking water. Roughly chop fennel.
Sauté chopped onion until translucent, add anchovies, pine nuts, zante currants, chopped fennel. Cook for a few minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add ½ cup or more of cooking water and let it evaporate (you'll want to get a moist condiment). In a small glass mix saffron with a bit of water and then add to the pan containing the rest of the ingredients.
Cook bucatini pasta in the cooking water you reserved. While pasta is boiling, add chopped sardines in the pan containing the condiment. Cook for few minutes (you don't want the sardines to be over-cooked).
When pasta is al dente, drain it and toss it in the pan (reserving a cup of cooking water). Mix well and sprinkle with some toasted breadcrumbs. Add cooking water as needed, to prevent the pasta to become dry. Let it rest a couple of minutes and serve.

Marinated Fresh Anchovies Crostini

July 9, 2015 By very EATalian

If the speed rate at which something disappears from the table is a good indication of “deliciousness”, then these crostini beat any other antipasto we have at our big family dinners; people DO fight over them. In Italian, they’re called Crostini con Alici Fresche Marinate and they’re, quite simply, toasted bread with marinated fresh anchovies on top.

If you’re thinking of the taste of canned anchovies, please erase the thought and rewind. These anchovies taste fresh, meaty and with a nice tartness. This recipe requires a bit of patience but it’s totally worth trying it: after cleaning the fish, you marinate it in vinegar for 4 hours and then you simply dress it with extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice. Next step: lay a couple of marinated fillets on a slice of crispy toasted bread…et voilà: you’ve got a nice appetizer that bursts with flavor.

It’s hard to believe such a small fish is packed with so much flavor and nutrients! We’re big fans of pesce azzurro (anchovies, sardines, mackerel, herring, etc.) around here. It’s cheap(er), rich in healthy unsaturated fats, and super tasty! Love, love, love it.

Tasty Marinated Fresh Anchovies Crostini

Prep time

5 hours

Total time

5 hours

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

1 pound fresh anchovies
2 cups (or more) of apple cider vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
¼ cup of parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
sea salt
2 cups (or more) of extra-virgin olive oil
bread, sliced and toasted

Instructions

How to clean anchovies: Hold the fish with one hand. With the other hand, pinch right below the head, snap it and pull most of the innards. Slit the belly with your finger and remove the remaining innards. Rinse the fish under cold water. Flatten the fish and remove the spine with the tail. Repeat for the rest of the anchovies.
Place clean fillets in a flat bottom bowl and add enough vinegar to cover them. Cover dish with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Rinse each fillet with a bit of vinegar to wash away any residue. (Anchovies will be soft and breakable--use extra caution during this step!). Place each rinsed anchovy side by side in another flat bottom bowl or deep dish. Once you formed the first layer, sprinkle some lemon juice, minced garlic, salt, and vinegar on top . Proceed with the next layers and repeat the same steps.
Cover anchovies with extra-virgin olive oil.
Slice bread and toast it on a pan. Lay anchovies on top of toasted bread and serve.

Spaghetti with Calamari

April 16, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

My husband and I love going grocery shopping together. Although I’m sure it may sound boring to most, we have fun looking at products (especially cheeses), being drawn by cool-looking and colorful packaging and getting inspiration for new recipes. We’re like kids in a candy store and I seem to be able to add to the experience by doing strange things that either make him laugh out loud or roll his eyes. In fact, American grocery stores have often offered me opportunities to learn, laugh, and reflect. Here’s a list of things that happened to me while shopping for food:

1) Spending at least 10 minutes looking for disposable gloves to pick my vegetables and then realizing people here pick their veggies with their bare hands.
2) Conversely, wondering why the roll of plastic bags stands right next to the chicken section, while I nonchalantly put a package of chicken breasts straight in the cart.
3) Trying to order prosciutto in hectograms.
4) Entering a cashier lane from the wrong side (it sadly still happens).
5) Being mesmerized by exotic and colorful foods like Doritos, Pop-tarts and Strawberry Marshmallow Fluff….impulsively buying them and, only after the first bite, reading their huge list of artificial ingredients. Yet still chowing down on them while being crushed by guilt.
6) Being puzzled at the idea that people would buy a product that claims to “taste like the real thing”, instead of getting the “real thing”.
7) Missing the European insert-a-coin-to-get-a-cart-and-get-your-coin-back-by-returning-the-cart system when I see shopping carts abandoned in the parking lot and waaaay too close to my car.
8) Lingering in front of the fish department, desperately looking for fish with their heads on.
9) Trying to bag my own groceries (as I would in Italy) and getting weird looks by the person whose job is actually to bag my groceries (oh. I thought he was just standing there!)
10) Whispering to my husband while in line to pay at Trader Joe’s: “is it okay if we use Whole Foods shopping bags here?” (like that would the cashier’s feelings! Total paranoia, I know.)

Although I’ve been in the States for some time now and I’m no longer a “fish out of water”, I seem to still be able to do awkward things that inevitably amuse or embarrass my husband. Just like when he overheard me asking the fish department guy this exact question:

“Do you have tentacles?” [read with cute voice and a light Italian accent]

I’m not sure if it was for my accent or the generic question (I’m pretty sure he thought I was asking if he had tentacles somewhere in his body), but the guy looked at me strangely and it took him awhile to understand I wanted squid “legs” (or arms??). My husband overheard the whole thing and barely kept his composure as he approached me.

Okay. End of my funny grocery shopping stories. The tentacles ended up with a bunch of squid rings in a delicious pasta with calamari –a fresh, simple and flavorful dish. Eating fresh seafood always puts me in a good mood. Eating squid tentacles, in particular, will always put a smile on my face.

SPAGHETTI WITH CALAMARI
Spaghetti con calamari
Servings: 2 | Prep time: 10 min | Cook time: 15 min

INGREDIENTS
190 g (6.7 oz) spaghetti
a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of strained tomatoes (no salt added, like Pomì)
1/2 lb clean squid tentacles + tubes, sliced in rings
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
a handful of parsley, chopped
red pepper flakes, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add spaghetti.
2. In the meantime, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and let it sizzle briefly.
3. In the same skillet, add tomato sauce and cook for 6-7 minutes, until sauce becomes thicker. Add squid tentacles and rings and cook for 2-3 minutes, until opaque. Add salt & pepper to taste and then remove pan from heat.
4. When spaghetti are a little firmer than al dente, drain them. Place the skillet with the sauce back on the stove over medium-high heat, adding drained pasta in it.
5. Add chopped parsley, stir and cook for a couple more minutes. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, to taste. Remove garlic cloves from pan and serve pasta immediately!

Buon appetito!
-Lisa

Fusilli with Asparagus, Shrimp, and Cherry Tomatoes

March 7, 2015 By very EATalian 2 Comments

Given the snowy weather in much of the States, I have a feeling that most of the country is still dreaming of a nice, warm and comforting bowl of soup. Spring is almost here, and if the weather doesn’t prove it, you just need to head to the produce isle of your grocery store and you’ll see huge bins of asparagus bunches, all lined up and ready to brighten your grocery basket.

Asparagus can be cooked in different ways. I like to half-cook and half-steam them, that is, steaming the whole spears upright in few inches of boiling water. The upright position allows the hard, thicker bottom to cook in water while the tips of the asparagus gently steam, preserving their crispiness.

Asparagus go amazingly well with shrimp. I bought a small bunch and I whipped up a pasta dish with some frozen shrimp and a few cherry tomatoes–it’s a simple and lovely way to bring spring to the table!

FUSILLI WITH ASPARAGUS, SHRIMP, AND CHERRY TOMATOES
Servings: 2 | Prep time: 20 min | Cook time: 15-20 min

INGREDIENTS
180 g (6.4 oz) fusilli pasta (the ones I used are called fusilli bucati corti)
a small bunch of asparagus (about 15)
1 small shallot, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring a pasta pot of salted water to a boil.
2. At the same time, pour about 3 1/2 inches of water into a taller pot and bring to a boil [if you have it, you can use an asparagus pot instead].
3. Trim the base of the asparagus stalk. Peel off hard skin from 2/3 of the stalks, leaving the top part intact.
4. Fasten the asparagus stalks into a bundle, using cooking twine. Place them in the tall pot of water in an upright position, with the tips extending a couple of inches or more above the boiling water. Cover, lower heat, and cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until bottom parts are tender and cooked through and spears are crisp tender. [Cooking time varies depending on the thickness and age of the asparagus]
5. Heat a bit of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and stir until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook until they soften (about 3 min). Turn the heat to medium high, add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
6. Remove cooked asparagus from the pot and reserve 2 tablespoons of cooking water. Trim the bottoms (about 1/3 of the stalk) and place bottoms in a blender with a bit of olive oil, a pinch of salt and the reserved cooking water. You will obtain a runny light green sauce.
7. Cut the rest of the asparagus in small pieces and toss them in the pan with tomatoes and shrimp.
8. Cook fusilli according to package instructions. When al dente, drain and toss in the skillet. Turn the heat on, add green sauce and let it saute until pasta absorbs flavors (about 1-2 min). Add salt, if necessary. Serve.

Buon appetito!