I don't know what it is about this wonderful dish, whether its the onslaught of aromatic and savory influences, the wonderful colors, or just the off-beat use of garum, but of all the stuff that I cook, this is the one that she comes back for again and again. Now, I love to make NEW things, so in my mind, going back to the playbook is okay, but not ideal. That being said, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!
Okay, this is broken down into a few things. Here's the overview of it. Take notes, there's a test later!
Got all that! Put it in a bowl and hit it with a hammer. That's how you make my dish! Ta-da!!!
Kidding, kidding.
Let's start off with the pesto sauce. For that, you want:
One large red bell pepper
Two teaspoons olive oil (I used an oil flavored with garlic and mushrooms)
Teaspoon of dried oregano
Teaspoon of dried basil
Teaspoon of fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
Cracked black pepper (maybe half teaspoon?)
Pinch of kosher salt
Handful of pine nuts
Two teaspoons tahini
1/4 Roma tomato
Cut your pepper in half lengthwise, and lay in a pyrex or similar baking dish. See the seeds inside? We hate seeds! Yank them out and throw them across the kitchen with rage. Make sure you clean out any stowaways too. Now, along the inner flesh of both halves, spread your olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. You have something that probably looks like this:
Preheat your oven to 450 and slap that sucker in for about 15-20 minutes, or until the skin on the bottoms starts to brown and pucker a bit.
While that's happening, grab your pinenuts and put them in a skillet on medium heat without any oil. Roll them around a bit until you get a good bit of browning on them:
Shouldn't take long at all, and once they start to darken up a little, take the skillet off heat and put them in a dish.
Have a beer. Relax. Maybe do some dishes. You can also take this opportunity to make the spinach batter for the calamari fritti.
Easy peasy, here's what you need:
About a half cup of gluten free rice flour (add more to adjust consistency)
About half a cup of water (keep this conservative)
Big huge wad of baby spinach. (About two good fistfulls.)
Two pinches of kosher salt
Teaspoon of baking powder
Half teaspoon cracked black pepper
About a dozen calamari rings (give or take)
Oil for frying (I use canola)
Okay, zip your spinach in a processor. I mean really go to town on it. You'll probably want to add a little of that water to the spinach so that you can keep the blades spinning and really get that stuff reduced into nearly a paste.
Looks like a green milkshake, kinda. That's good. We want the gorgeous color that the spinach has in it, and this is going to make a beautiful batter.
Add the salt, pepper, baking powder, and spinach milkshake to your rice flour.
If it's watery, add flour. If it's cakey, add water. The best way to test is to dip a ring of calamari into the batter. If it sticks in a generally uniform way, it's perfect. Either way, set this batter aside for now. You'll be using it soon.
Zut alors! Your peppers must be done by now!
Doesn't look like much changed, except for that shot of steam in your face and that wonderfully pungent pepper smell. Look at the skin. See how its dark and a bit pruney? Let this sit and cool for a while (PS get another beer). When its cooled to where you can handle it, flip each pepper half over in the dish and give the skin a tug. It should slough off almost entirely in one big piece. Throw that skin away, its work is done :)
Now, plop both halves of pepper, spices, and oil into your food processor. Add your tahini and piece of roma tomato, and puree. You want a nearly uniform pesto. It's okay to have a little chunk, but we want to keep that to a minimum. Once it's done in the processor, scoop that fire-red pesto into a dish and crush your pine nuts, stirring them inside. I didn't take a picture of this for some reason, but you will see the finished result later.
Now, back to frying the calamari fritti. I fry in a cast iron skillet but this is the sort of thing that a deep fryer would also work well for, or anything where you can add more oil. Start nearly at high temp. I choose canola because aside from being generally one of the healthier oils, its got a high smoke point, and tolerates a temperature that high. At any rate, you want it nearly at high temp, and then dial it back to medium high to drop your calamari in. This is going to flash seal your batter and allow for a slower, tastier cooking of the stuff within. Too often calamari is tough and rubbery, but it does not have to be. You're only going to have the rings in the oil for about two minutes, tops. Get them out and set them on a drying rack, like this:
Notice the green? It doesn't look like much, but wait for it in the final dish. Take a tiny pinch of fine-ground kosher salt and slightly sprinkle on each ring while it dries on the rack.
While your calamari cools, take about six stalks of asparagus, and cut the pale bases of the stalks off. In another pan, add just barely enough olive oil to moisten the bottom, and crush half a clove of garlic. Cook on medium heat for about five minutes or so, and remove.
While that's simmering a little, slice out about six very thin slices of roma tomato, and set aside.
Now, what are we forgetting? Angel hair pasta! The base of our dish! I hope I don't have to tell you how to cook pasta, BUT if you are that one person who has never done it before, you want a big pot 3/4 full of water on high heat, with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt as well. When it boils, drop in your pasta. I used a full pack, but I wouldn't recommend it as it made too much pasta for the servings I was going for. A half pack should be fine. You will stir the pasta and water for about two or three minutes, and then take it off high heat and put into a collander to shake out any excess moisture. Transfer that to a big bowl where you can toss that pasta, because we're going to add some oil and garum to it!
What is garum? GLAD YOU ASKED!
Garum is a family of sauces and additives that was popularized in the ancient roman empire. It's very similar to some southeast asian fish sauces, and usually involves parts of fish, whole fish, fish guts, etc of whatever people had, put into a brining barrel, and left over the summer season to ferment.
Disgusted yet? Don't lose heart, fermenting is great! It's a magical process, and if you don't believe me, ask the beer in your hand what it thinks about it!
At any rate, the garum I use is a particular kind, called garum colatura. If you must know, it is made of gutted anchovies, and comes from Italy. It has an amber color, a lightly pungent, vaguely bready, vaguely fishy smell, and a salty taste, with an extremely subtle essence of fish. I take about two tablespoons of this stuff, and pair it with four to five tablespoons of my garlic and mushroom olive oil:
Add a bit of cracked black pepper, and toss that about until the entire batch of pasta has a glistening, oily patina. You'll catch faint notes of that rustic garum smell as you do it, and I guarantee you'll be anxious to finish this dish.
Fortunately, you're done! Arrange on a plate as you will (I suck at plating but that's something I'll get with repetition) and serve! With a half pack of pasta, it will be good for serving four people.
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