The Best Thing We've Cooked in a While

It started off with my wife announcing that she was going to make a batch of homemade pasta. I said I'd be happy to make the sauce, and she indicated a preference for a seafood sauce. I figured I'd go in a Sicilian direction, but didn't want to get too close to puttanesca territory. A quick trip to my favorite Chinatown fish market yielded a dozen little neck clams ($4), a pound of cleaned squid ($4) and a pound of shrimp ($5). I had anchovy paste and capers on hand, but knew these would have to be used in a restrained manner. But I had a trick up my sleeve: the shrimp heads and shells boiled in half a glass of white wine gave me a strong shrimp liquor that I added to the sauce. This, along with the juice the clams gave off while being cooked in the sauce added a depth far beyond what the anchovy paste alone ever could have.

The boys got wind of what we were up to and promptly invited themselves to supper, making it a family dinner for four. While it was not a complicated meal, nor an expensive one it did require about an hour of work from two people to make. Then again, we're not the fastest cooks in the world, and it had been over a decade since my wife had made fresh pasta. We could probably bang it out again in 45 min. And we probably will soon. This was much better than what I've had in good mid-tier Italian restaurants here in NYC. And the food cost to feed four was under $15. The worst part of the experience was cleaning the shrimp, but having the shells and heads to beef up the sauce was more than worth it. The extra buck-fifty for the already cleaned squid money well spent, however. This was hardcore enough.

My wife went with a half white, half semolina egg pasta. Rolling it out to the #5 setting on the Kitchen Aid mixer's pasta roller attachment made noodles that cooked to surprising lightness in about two minutes. Hand cutting gave them a pleasant unevenness that highlighted the fact that it was homemade. The noodles were about twice the width of fettuccine making them perfect against the sauce, which came out a bit richer than I'd anticipated (thanks to the shrimp shells).

The payoff for the effort involved was the best meal to come out of our kitchen in a while. And, without bragging, I can say good things come out of our kitchen on a regular basis. This will serve four as a main course or six as part of a larger meal.

For the pasta:

3/4 cup semolina flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
2 eggs
2 Tsp water
2 Tsp olive oil

Mix ingredients together and knead for 10 minutes (a mixer with a dough hook makes this easier). Ball it up and place in oiled bowl. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. On a lightly floured surface cut into four pieces. Feed each piece individually (again, easier if you have the attachment for your mixer) as follows: Roll five times on #1 setting (it may rip, that's OK), once on setting #3 (if it rips here start rolling all over again) and once on setting #5. By now it should be a giant flat lasagna noodle. Gently lay on floured surface and cut into noodles about 1/4" wide. Drape noodles over drying rack or the edge of a very large bowl. Repeat until all four pieces of dough are noodles.

When you're ready to go with a large pot of boiling salted water cook pasta. It will cook in about two minutes, so make sure sauce is ready to go before cooking pasta.

For the sauce:

3-4 Tbs olive oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbs anchovy paste
28 oz can tomatoes (crushed or whole, broken up by hand with liquid)
1 Tbs capers
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 doz clams (I used little necks, smaller is better), scrubbed
3/4lb whole shrimp
3/4lb cleaned squid
1/2 glass white wine
black pepper, to taste

Clean the shrimp, placing shells and heads into a small pan with the wine. Bring to a simmer. Cut the squid into rings and tentacles, and set aside with shrimp meat. In a large pan heat olive oil, garlic and anchovy paste. Fry for about 30 seconds, then add tomatoes, capers and crushed red pepper. Bring to a simmer. When shrimp shells have turned bright pink remove from heat, and carefully pour liquid into the simmering sauce. The liquid ought to be a robust orange-pink. Place the clams into the sauce and cover. When they open they're cooked. Remove cooked clams from sauce, making sure their juice remains in the sauce, and set aside. Discard any that fail to open within ten minutes. At this point the pasta should be ready to go, because you're about five minutes from plating it. Add shrimp and squid to the simmering sauce. When the shrimp turn pink it's done. Cut the heat and add the cooked, drained pasta, stirring to sauce evenly. Plate the pasta, placing the clams attractively on the side of each plate, or if the clams are very small you could toss them with the pasta before plating. Serve immediately.
Photos by Cynthia Lamb