Today, in our Giallo Zafferano kitchen
I’ll reveal the secret about the recipe
that got my carrier started:
Marinara Pasta!
A classic traditional dish,
executed to perfection.
Let’s start!
First of all we have to prepare the mussels
and the clams
after having them cleaned and
washed.
Some oil...
a bit abundant.
A clove of garlic.
We’re going to carve it with a knife tip
and then leave it unpeeled to fry.
Then we take the mussels and the clams
and add them to the garlic.
Let’s try and cover everything quickly with
the lid
so that the heat stays in
and cracks open the mussels and the clams.
They just have to open, not cook too much
Leave them nice and soft.
Maybe now and then using a tea-towel
shake the stove to move them around.
Be careful not to get burned doing this!
There’s already a very nice smell!
We’re already heating up the kitchen.
As you can see, they’re opening
the heat opens them suddenly, thanks to the steam
that’s why you have to cover them up.
I’ll open it, and look how lovely!
Let the steam always fall inside the stove
and what a spectacular view.
Now let’s stir everything.
This could even be a recipe in itself,
adding now some parsley and maybe some basil
I can promise you that a Marinara like this,
with no tomatoes and just mussels and clams
with nice white bread with yeast base
would be excellent!
Our  mussels and clams are opening.
We obviously used clams that had been washed accurately beforehand
and I’m sure there’s not going to be any dirt
but I’ll give you a little piece of advice:
Always taste one or two to check if there
really isn’t any sand.
If there’s no sand we’re fine
but otherwise unfortunately we’ll have to do the procedure
form the top again.
As I was saying before, let’s not cook the
mussels and clams too much
otherwise they’ll be very dry
and we want them to be nice and soft.
Now that they’re all open, we can turn off
the fire.
Let’s take a little skimmer
and put the clams and the mussels away
being very careful not to burn yourself
in order to prepare
them for the marinara.
Use your hands if needed,
because, you know, we’re getting ready for hell
and we have to get used to the heat!
As you can see I’m trying to only take the
mussels and the clams
leaving the sauce in their pan.
I’m also taking out the garlic
and the ones without a shell.
I’ll show you what where going to do now.
Let’s take off the shell from just half
of them.
Just half so it’s going to be easier
to find them in the pasta for your diners.
And half for decoration
Because as you’re going to see afterwards:
this recipe is not going to be presented on a plate,
but served at the centre of a nice
table in a large pan,
a copper pan in this case.
It’s going to be a recipe that you can share with the other diners.
As I was saying, let’s taste a clam....
perfect
sweet,
soft,
without sand
intense flavour
In the meanwhile even the remaining of the
clam and mussels’ water
has moved to the bottom
and we can filter it.
Don’t shake the pan too much,
and decant the water through a sifter,
and slowly decant everything,
so that we won’t find pieces of shell,
that are very sharp
or sand.
So now we have our cooking water
the clams and mussels without their shell
and the ones with the shell, that will be used to decorate.
Let’s start with the following phase!
Now let’s prepare our real Marinara.
In a big pan put a little oil
see how oil is very important in our kitchen.
Even here, I would add a small clove of garlic and carve it.
This time we’re going to peel it
because we don’t want its skin to get mixed
whit the rest of the sauce.
Cut it in half.
A little suggestion:
be careful when you use stuff like garlic
that has a very strong taste,
don’t touch the chopping board
because otherwise whatever you cut on that
will taste like garlic.
Always cut it keeping it in your hands
and
then wash them immediately.
Here we’re stir frying the garlic, this
is very important.
The garlic has to be golden but not black.
Because if the garlic turns black
it will give the sauce a very bitter taste.
So it just has to get light blond and give
some taste to our oil.
I’d say we’re ready, given its colour.
Let’s take our clams and mussels’ water
and put it in the pan,
but not here while it’s on the stove,
otherwise your kitchen
is going to get dirty.
Do it next to a sink,
where you’re going
to add the water.
As you can see the reaction is very dangerous
because the oil is very hot
so do it very carefully
and calmly.
The more you panic
the more you could get
burnt when you’re in the kitchen
this is normally the rule in the kitchen.
Now let’s leave it to boil a bit
and add a glass of water
leave it to boil for 3 or 4 minutes.
And then we’ll add our tomato sauce.
To reduce waste
let’s put some water in our bowl
and clean it, getting all the remaining sauce
and put it in the pan.
And now let’s leave it to cook for about
10/12 minutes.
Now, at this point, get your half paccheri
and put them in boiling salted water,
always slowly and very carefully.
Get used to stirring the pasta now and then
after putting it in the water,
especially as soon as you put it in the water and after 20/30 seconds.
Like this you’ll prevent it from sticking
to the pan,
especially with induction or electric plates.
After this, our sauce is going.
Now let’s clean the fish:
we said we were making pasta for 4
so let’s start with the scallops
that have already been cleaned.
Let’s take them out of the shell
and let’s add the shells to our mussels and clams.
Let’s take the red king prawn,
see how fresh is it?
When the fish releases its colour it means
it’s very fresh.
The smell is the sea’s smell,
it’s lovely, it doesn’t smell like fish.
Now we have to carve the king prawn on its
back
and take out the intestine, which is the sandiest part
done.
Let’s clean the pink shrimps now
Let’s stir now and then our pasta.
It’s very important!
And now let’s carve the prawns (scampi)
these delightful prawns from Sicily
Let’s carve them
like this.
Leaving it attached by the tail end
and dividing
instead in half the head.
Like this.
This bit we need to get rid of.
You have to know that this recipe, I am very
fond of it
because it’s the first recipe
that I managed to make by my self when I was
10.
Recipe that was not invented by me but that
I have done for some clients, for some friends
and that I was really proud about.
It’s a very tasty dish, but very simple
to make.
But like every simple dish, it’s...
well, not complicated to do...but to keep the fish
soft and tasty you have to have a particular
attention.
I remember that it was one of the first recipes
that I did on my own
and when I had to do it at work
I would get really really cross
when people used to order it
because it seemed like a very difficult dish
because of the many ingredients involved.
And that’s why I used to fight with some
of the metres or the waiters.
Afterward it became my workhorse and it was the first recipe that satisfied me,
one of the dishes that pushed me to continue doing this job.
Once you’ve cleaned all of the fish, we
can put it in our sauce
which has now cooked
for the correct amount of time.
Try and spread them around
the king prawns, the shrimps, the scallops.
To make sure every bit of our sauce gets tasty.
Put the prawns on top like this
as if it was a lid.
Then like an actual lid let’s put the scallops’
shells.
Let’s heat up this sauce
and turn up the
stove.
If you see that your sauce is reducing too
much,
get a little bit of salted water from where you cooked the pasta
and dilute the sauce a bit.
Then add the cherry tomatoes which we cut beforehand
now let’s our sauce cook a little bit more
but let’s turn the fire down a
bit to make it simmer.
Now let’s take out the main shells that
we’re going to use to decorate
and not only for that.
You can’t smell it from your home,
but I can promise you that the smell is delightful,
really spectacular.
Let’s go and drain the pasta
always check
before
it’s ready, perfectly cooked.
It’s making me drool.
A bit of oil.
Now that we’ve stored the pasta with the
sauce
and let’s prepare our serving pan.
As I told you before, we’re going to put
it at the centre of the table
it’s going to be a convivial dish
a Sunday dish
where all the friends and family can take the pasta
with their spoon and eat it.
Let’s leave the rest of the sauce to cook
some more time, so it’s nice and hot.
Remember to do all of these things very quickly
so that the food gets to the table when it’s still hot.
Let’s turn it off
and put the sauce on
the pasta.
Once you’ve eaten the pasta
you can have a wonderful scarpetta with the rest of the sauce.
The final 3 steps:
our basil and parsley chopped mix,
a bit of pepper that can’t miss in these occasions...
crumbled like this,
remember to wash your hands afterwards
and don’t touch your eyes before.
And some more oil.
Our marinara pasta is ready.
The smell of the sea, and a rich tomato sauce.
With this dish you’re going to bring to
your table the Mediterranean taste.
You just have to follow my recipe and the
success is guaranteed!
Enjoy your meal!
