This dish is a wonderful way to take advantage of seafood, mixing your favourites together in a piquant tomato sauce then using it to dress pasta. Straight from the Italian seaside, you can see yourself eating this on the seafront in Rimini rather than in the garden in Romford! You can use whichever seafood you prefer, and the mixed packs you can buy in the supermarket are fine – unless you have a good fishmonger handy, in which case the freshest is always the best. We’re using a combination of mussels, prawns, clams and squid, which give a nice texture and flavour to the dish. You can also use whichever is your favourite pasta, but the ‘long’ varieties are best and we prefer to use linguine for this dish. This recipe serves 4.
01.
Ingredients
75g Linguine per person
250g Mussels, thoroughly cleaned
250g Clams, thoroughly cleaned
8 large King Prawns, shelled and deveined
250g Squid tentacles, chopped
2 large ripe Tomatoes, finely chopped
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 small glass White Wine
1tsp Italian Herb Mix
2tsp Aleppo Pepper flakes
02.
Method
First cook the pasta according to packet instructions, keeping aside 100ml of the cooking water before you drain and rinse it. Set to one side.
In a deep frying pan or wok, heat 1tbs olive oil. Next add the garlic, the tomatoes, the herbs and the Aleppo flakes, and saute for a couple of minutes. Now add the mussels, the clams and the white wine, then cover the pan and cook until the mussels and clams begin to open (remember to discard any that don’t). Take the lid off at this point and add the prawns and the squid, and cook until they are just done (5 minutes or so).
Finally add to the pan the reserved pasta water and the pasta itself, and give the pan a really good stir until everything is piping hot and mixed together. It is nice to serve this dish on a large serving platter, garnished with some fresh torn basil leaves, rather than individually, allowing everyone around the table to dig in.
