What happens when you find yourself waking up, night after night, still dreaming of the chewy, homemade pasta and briny, freshly-caught seafood you had on your dream vacation to the Amalfi Coast?
You re-create! :D
Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog Challenge #2 was to whip up another culture’s classic dish that would take you outside your culinary comfort zone to make. Always willing to take on a challenge, I scoured the city yesterday afternoon, hunting for the freshest seafood I could get my paws on.
My mission? To recreate my favorite dish from our entire Italian vacation. The dish that’s on every restaurant and household menu in the tiny, Mediterranean coastal town of Praiano, Italy, where we stayed. The dish that makes my mouth water and my taste buds sing – Pasta allo Scoglio. Seafood pasta, baby!
FYI, I live in the Midwest where we grow corn so sweet they turn it into ice cream and pork’s so abundant they practically give it away. What we DON’T have, you see, is readily available, super-fresh seafood. Ie, my experience cooking with exotic seafood is zip. Zilch. Nada!
Wanting to try and make the dish as authentic as possible, and take myself even further outside my comfort zone, I did what every Italian woman would do – I made my own pasta. You guys – it is SO much easier than I ever thought. Seriously! Check it out…
Homemade Pasta
Yield: 6 servings of 1/4 inch wide noodles.
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
Directions:
1. Place flour into a large bowl and make a well in the center.
2. Add eggs, extra virgin olive oil and salt into the well.
3. Stir with a wooden spoon, gradually adding more and more flour, until the mixture is too thick to stir anymore.
4. With clean hands, knead the dough until it comes together into a rough ball, then turn it out onto a flat, floured surface.
5. Continue to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, or until it turns into a smooth, elastic ball. Add more flour to the board when necessary, to prevent sticking.
Remember to have fun! ;)
6. Cut the dough into thirds, then lightly flour the cutting board and a rolling pin.
7. Roll the dough out, adding more flour when necessary, until it’s 1/8 inch thick.
8. Smooth a tiny bit of flour over each side of the dough and roll up into a cigar shape.
9. With a sharp knife, cut dough into desired noodle thickness.
10. Roll noodles out and lay flat. Cook immediately in salted boiling water until the noodles rise to the top, ~1-2 minutes, or store in a tupperware container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
You can freeze any leftover noodles, too!
Ok. Pasta? Check! Now for the seafood portion of the program. (Insert “eek!” here…)
I was lucky enough to find the most of the same delicacies that were in my Pasta allo Scoglio in Italy, here in town. We’ve got sea scallops,
little neck clams,
squid tubes (aka calamari,)
fresh shrimp,
and mussels!
Can I just tell you incredibly odd it is to hold something in your hand knowing that it’s alive, and you’re about to cook it?! Ie, cleaning the mussels and clams was seriously. freaky!
I pushed all thoughts aside, laid out my seafood, heated up the stove, and got to work…
Pasta allo Scoglio
Based on a recipe from Bacco Ristorante. Yield: 1 serving.
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sea scallops
2 large, peeled & deveined shrimp
4 little neck clams, scrubbed
4 mussels, scrubbed
1 squid tube, cut into rings
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup marinara sauce
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly browned. About 30 seconds.
2. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add scallops to the pan. Sear on one side until golden brown. Flip and add the rest of the seafood.
3. Cook seafood for 30 seconds, then add white wine and marinara sauce. Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the clams & mussels have opened. NOTE: Do not try to pry open and eat the clams or mussels that do not open. They are inedible.
4. Push the seafood to one side of the pan and add a serving of homemade pasta, cooked until it’s a little underdone, to the empty side of the pan. Allow the pasta to continue cooking in the sauce until it’s cooked through.
5. Serve immediately, topped with chopped parsley.
Omg, it freaking worked!!
The scallops tasted ocean-fresh, the squid was tender, the pasta actually tasted like real pasta, and the mussels opened!! Ok…the clams didn’t. You can’t win ’em all, I guess. ;)
The sauce was so complimentary too. Really light and definitely not overpowering the taste of the fresh seafood.
The wonderful thing about Italian cooking is that, while it may seem intimidating, the ingredients are fresh and uncomplicated. The whole thing, not counting making the pasta, took me less than 10 minutes to create. Score!
Comfort zone = re-zoned. Mission = accomplished! :mrgreen:
Have a great night you guys!
~~~~~
What foods are you intimidated to cook with?
Jessica @ The Process of Healing 09.26.2010
Wow… you go girl! That sounds amazing!
Teresa 09.26.2010
Looks amazing! Where did you find the fresh seafood? My hubby & I have been wanting to cook more seafood, but the frozen stuff doesn’t look appealing to us. Good luck with Round 2.
dmcgirl 09.26.2010
This is a winner!!!! OMG… fantastic! You did rock this!
Lauren 09.26.2010
YOU GO GIRL!!!!! This is incredible. I’ve only made my own pasta once, but it was extremely time consuming and way too much work. The effort you put into this entry is sure to put you in round 3. Good luck, you always have my vote. :)
Tina 09.26.2010
I’m always so nervous when it comes to cooking with seafood too. You make it seem doable though. Great recipe!
Sarah K. @ The Pajama Chef 09.26.2010
wow, i am so impressed! great job :)
Marie-JourneyToBodyZen 09.26.2010
That looks so mouth-wateringly delish! I’m really intimidated by a lot of foods…..I’ve kinda just started this new chapter of my life called “cooking” :). But, I’m looking forward to the fun it brings!
Katie 09.26.2010
Wow that looks AMAZING! I am very impressed, especially with the home-made pasta. I’ve tried to make pasta before and it failed miserably, but this has made me want to try again. Nice work, and I love the step-by-step photos, will make it easy to follow along when I try the pasta recipe. :)
Kim @ Simply Starving 09.26.2010
YUM! Hey, where did you get your seafood at? It looks so good. I used to live in Florida and was spoiled by fresh shrimp, tuna, well, any seafood, and now that I am back in Iowa I am too nervous to buy any and make it at home.
amanda @ fake ginger 09.26.2010
WOW!! That’s quite a meal! It looks awesome. :)
Hannah Mize 09.26.2010
My husband found you on Twitter and recommended me to your site. I am now a follower and have had fun seeing what you are up too. I, too, am very intimidated by seafood. We live in central Texas, so it is more readily available than Iowa, but we are still around 7-8 hours from the coast. You have inspired me! I might have to try it. Thanks for the pasta recipe.
Mara @ What's For Dinner? 09.26.2010
I can just about smell and taste that dish… it’s gorgeous, and I’ll bet it tasted every bit as delicious as I can imagine. Here’s to you being readers’ choice for round two!! That is, if it can’t be me :)
Liz @ Blog is the New Black 09.26.2010
I’m so impressed with your pasta skills. I don’t eat seafood but your dish looks impressive! Good luck! :)
Susie 09.26.2010
I love that you put in there “with clean hands”. Hee hee…
Melanie 09.26.2010
I am definitely inspired by this recipe! I never cooked with seafood in Iowa, either, but now that I live on the east coast, my fiance has been hinting that we should take advantage of the fresh seafood that is everywhere to be seen! I’ve been too intimidated to even try, since his mom is Spanish and he grew up with homemade paella and other amazing things, but now I think I’m going to give it a shot! The fresh pasta also looks delicious! :)
Jenna @ readwriteandlive 09.26.2010
Wow! I am hit and miss with seafood, but that actually looks amazing! I might have to attempt something similar, though possibly with less types of seafood. I don’t know if I’m that brave!
I’ve been able to make every dish that I’ve wanted to so far. I haven’t been extremely bold just yet though with experimenting (recipe girl here). I’m sure my time will come where I get something on the mind that I just won’t successfully make. I dread that day!
AJ 09.26.2010
Wow! Your Italian dish would be outside my comfort zone. I’ve never cooked with mussels or clams, and I have never made pasta from scratch.
I am pretty much intimidated to cook with any ingredient that I have never used before. I’m trying to get more experimental.
Erica 09.26.2010
You are brave! And it really doesn’t look that hard. Where did you find all of your ingredients? I live in a small town in northeast Iowa and don’t think I’d ever be able to cook that, unless say I was driving home from Minneapolis or Des Moines or something! :-)
Kerstin 09.26.2010
Awesome entry – I still want to make homemade pasta! And I love making meals inspired by trips :)
Exercise and Eat 09.26.2010
That looks like a beautiful dish! Sadly, I’m allergic to shellfish…