What Was Old is New Again
Last year I found myself with to many tomatoes and an idea churning in my head. I came out as Cod Pomodoro served with rice. It was a good dish, I loved the cod cooked in tomato, onion, and lemon but a funny thing happened as I was experimenting with pasta over the past few weeks. I ended up with a pasta sauce that was very reminiscent of my recipe for Cod Pomodoro. Well, having come close I had to push a little further which brings me to this post.
I’ve been working with a basic foundation of onions softened in olive oil followed by garlic until it explodes with it’s perfume followed by tomatoes and finished with a little butter and herbs. I’ve been altering the foundation with various combinations of peppers, squash, artichokes, and sausage to make unique pasta dishes with extremely different textures colors, and tastes. Imagine my surprise when I realized I was back to something familiar but with the experience to refine it even further.
Start with half of a red onion and a bell pepper diced and seasoned with salt and pepper (if the pepper smells strong I cut back to about a third of a pepper). Soften them in a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil.
Add a clove of garlic smashed with the flat of your knife and minced fine (or use two if you love garlic like I do). Add a couple fillets of anchovies along with the garlic (I actually keep a tube of anchovie paste and just squeeze out about a teaspoon). The anchovies should dissolve in the oil.
Be ready to add your tomatoes as soon as you can smell the garlic. I like to use about 6 or 8 plumb tomatoes (but any type will do) that have been diced (you can peel them if you like but I don’t bother as I like the rustic look of the skin in the pasta). Along with them I added about a half cup of white wine (I used La Crema Chardonnay), a diced yellow squash, and a can of artichoke quarters in water (which I’d squeezed the excess water from). To this I added a couple teaspoons of capers which I drained and rinsed as well as the zest from a small lemon. Cover for a couple minutes and let the moisture come out of the vegetables.
With about 4 minutes left to cook the pasta (at 5000 feet of elevation I use the recomended time on the pasta to get perfect al dente pasta every time at lower elevation I would cut the time) I nestled fillets of cod into the sauce turning them after two minutes.
As the pasta finishes remove the fish and set aside. Add about a tablespoon of cold butter to the sauce. Drain the pasta (be sure to reserve about a cup of the water.) Add the sauce to the pasta and continue cooking over low heat for a few more minutes. If it seems dry add some of the pasta water to get good coverage. Add a couple heaping table spoons of fresh grated parmigiana and fresh basil and stir it into the pasta.
Pour into a large serving bowl sprinkle with more cheese and arrange the fish fillets on top with some basil leaves for garnish. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the fish and serve.
