This pasta dish that is popular across Italy features a variety of seafood, including prawns, mussels, clams, squid and baby octopus. Of course you’re not limited to this; you can replace shrimp with prawns and/or (in any case) if you can’t find baby octopus, you can use the same weight of squid. Other ingredients such as cherry tomatoes, white wine, garlic, parsley and chili are there to make this dish rich and flawless.
And if you wonder where the name comes from, it refers to a traditional cooking technique used by Italian fishermen. They would throw some small seashore rocks, “scogli” in Italian, into the pot containing live shellfish. By shaking the pot, scogli would help to detach the mollusks from the shells. Then, they could remove the rocks and shells and add the spaghetti to the sauce. So, in English, spaghetti allo scoglio means spaghetti with the rock. Anyway, whatever it means, it’s delicious and tastes like “The Sea.”
Tips:
∙ Don’t be tempted to throw away the stock of mussels and clams. In fact, the stocks are the secret ingredients of this dish that contain all the flavors of seafood.
∙ This dish has a good balance of flavors. But if you want the prawns’ flavor to cover the others, you can blend the cooked prawn heads before straining them. HOWEVER, IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED. In that case, just remember to remove the eyes before cooking, as they leave a bitter aftertaste.
∙ Freezing squid and baby octopus makes them softer. So, if you prefer a softer result, freeze them for 4 days (about 96 hours) or buy frozen ones.
∙ Another important point to have softer squid and baby octopus is to NOT overcook them; it makes them tough and chewy. Put the baby octopus in the pan for the final 6 minutes and cook the squid for the last 3 minutes.
∙ If you want a saltier seafood spaghetti, replace 2 tbsp. tomato paste (which you add to the sauce) with 300 ml tomato puree.
Ingredients: Serves 4,⏱1 hour
∙ 400 g Spaghetti
∙ 1 kg Mussels
∙ 1 kg Clams
∙ 12 Prawns (with head)
∙ 1 Squid (about 200 g)
∙ 250 g Baby octopus
∙ 350 g Cherry tomatoes
∙ 1/2 Onion
∙ Extra virgin olive oil to taste
∙ 2 Cloves Garlic
∙ 3 tbsp. Tomato paste
∙ 1 Glass White wine
∙ 1 Sprig Parsley
∙ 1 Fresh chili
∙ Salt to taste
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:10 Prawns’ stock
00:55 Clams & mussels’ stock
02:20 Sauce
02:49 Assembling
Attribution:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j99j7iX3MxM
Created by: https://www.youtube.com/@davide_zamby