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.
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