Fresh pasta with Scorpion Fish Sauce, or Paste alla Chitarra con lo Scorfano: Paste alla chitarra are made using a contraption whose thinly spaced wires bring a guitar to mind; you press the sheet of pasta dough through them and thus obtain pasta that's about the same size as thick spaghetti but square in cross section. You can, if need be, use tagliatelle instead here, or even spaghetti. To serve 8 you'll need:
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 pounds (600 g) fresh pasta alla chitarra (figure 4/5 pound of dry pasta)
- 12 ounces (300 g) scorpion fish filets (you can also use mullet filets)
- 2 bell peppers, one yellow and the other red
- 3 cups (750 ml) tomato sauce
- 3 shallots
- 1 clove garlic
- A few wild fennel fronds (grind fennel seeds if need be,
- and mix some domestic bulb fennel fronds into the powder to provide color)
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper to taste
Preparation:
Flame or broil the peppers briefly to blister their skins (broiling is easier if you cut them into strips that will lie flat), then peel them, rinse them, stem, rib, and seed them if you haven't already, and chop them coarsely. Skin the shallots, slice them finely, and sauté them until they begin to color in 1/4 cup of olive oil. Then add the tomato sauce, the peppers, and abundant minced fennel; season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, mince the garlic. Rinse the fish and pat it dry. Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a pan, add the garlic, and after a few seconds the fish; sauté them 4 minutes per side remove them to a sheet of absorbent paper, and when they have cooled to the point of being touchable, crumble them into the tomato sauce. Continue simmering the sauce for another five minutes.
In the meantime, bring pasta water to a boil, adding a tablespoon of minced fennel fronds to aromatize it, salt it, and cook the pasta, draining it while it's still fairly almandine dente. Gently stir it into the simmering sauce, cook for a minute more, turn it out onto a platter, dust it with a little more minced fennel (if you want) and a twist of freshly ground pepper, and serve.
Meanwhile, mince the garlic. Rinse the fish and pat it dry. Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a pan, add the garlic, and after a few seconds the fish; sauté them 4 minutes per side remove them to a sheet of absorbent paper, and when they have cooled to the point of being touchable, crumble them into the tomato sauce. Continue simmering the sauce for another five minutes.
In the meantime, bring pasta water to a boil, adding a tablespoon of minced fennel fronds to aromatize it, salt it, and cook the pasta, draining it while it's still fairly almandine dente. Gently stir it into the simmering sauce, cook for a minute more, turn it out onto a platter, dust it with a little more minced fennel (if you want) and a twist of freshly ground pepper, and serve.
