It’s been a couple of weeks since I delved into a new pasta step-by-step for you. The holidays were busy for us at the restaurant and personally, so not a lot of time for playing around in the kitchen. Back into it now, and I actually have this and another one lined up.
Today, we are back in Puglia, in the south of Italy, where we recently looked at spaghetti all’assassina. Nothing quite so work intensive this time – while the assassin’s spaghetti uses few ingredients, it requires being really attentive. We’re making one of my favorite seafood pastas, Spaghetti alla tarantina. Taranto is the capital city of the province of the same name in Puglia, as well as being the third largest city in southern Italy. In the food world, tarantine mussels are famed for their size and sweetness. I have to settle for the small, less sweet ones we have available here.
This is still a relatively simple pasta to make. You want your spaghetti, in this case fresh spaghetti “alla chitarra”, though packaged spaghetti or a similar narrow ribbon pasta is just fine for this. Parcooked mussels with their cooking liquid. It’s traditional to keep a few mussels in the shell just to be decorative, but it’s not necessary. Medium hot chilies, garlic, tomato paste, white wine, cherry tomatoes, black pepper, and parsley complete our mise en place. Obviously, there’s a pot of lightly salted water going on the stove for the pasta, and some olive oil ready to go.
Chop the garlic, chili, and parsley, and quarter the cherry tomatoes.
In a skillet, heat some olive oil and gently cook the garlic and chili until it’s nice and aromatic and just starting to color – just a minute or two at the most.
Add the tomato paste and the white wine and cook until the wine has evaporated and absorbed into the ingredients, stirring it around.
Add the cherry tomatoes and some grinds of black pepper. If you’re using dry spaghetti from a package, wait about 3-4 minutes and then drop it in the boiling water.
Cook for about ten minutes, until they’re soft and starting to fall apart. If you’re using fresh spaghetti, this is the time to drop it in the pot of boiling water.
Your spaghetti should be about two minutes short of being fully cooked – if you’re using dry, just subtract two minutes from the recommended cooking time, if you’re using fresh, wait just until the water comes back to a boil and then do this step. Add the mussels, their cooking juices, and the parsley, and a ladle of the pasta cooking water, to start emulsifying. Stir vigorously to get that emulsification going.
Add the pasta to the sauce, and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes to finish cooking it. Add a ladle or two of pasta water, as needed, to have sufficient liquid to finish cooking the pasta in, as well as continuing the emulsification process.
When done – the spaghetti cooked properly, and the sauce reduced to a thicker “cream” that clings to it, you’re ready to serve! Taste, adjust seasoning if needed. This is also the moment to decide if you’re going to violate that mythical “no cheese with seafood” rule. Which isn’t a rule. It’s a made up thing that some people claim and some don’t. It’s not unusual for this dish to get a good grating of parmigiano (and there are several other mussel pasta dishes that do the same, including a mussel carbonara). I didn’t put any on this time, but sometimes I do. Depends on my mood.
And, serve.
I know you’re all wondering what the other pasta I have waiting in the wings is, it’s a more complicated recipe, just to do something different, a lasagna bianca, or white lasagna. You’re going to like it, I promise you.
