This is really a dish that can be eaten at any time and used as both a starter or a main course. It can even be partly prepared in advance. We start with the linguini. This is very similar to spaghetti but the strands are flat and not round. You can of course use spaghetti . This was cooked in some fish stock. If you have fresh all the better but if not a fish stock cube in some boiling water will be fine. The linguini was cooked for about five minutes until just cost and then drained. This can now be used straight away or chilled and used the next day.
The rest of the dish is now all done in one pot. In our dish we have mussels and clams but other shell fish can be used. We carefully cleaned them making sure that all the shells are tightly closed. If the shells are open and do not closed when you tap the shell, these must be discarded as the mussel is dead and is dangerous to eat. You can buy cleaned shell fish from your fish monger pr super market. You must also make sure that the mussel's beard is removed. This is the stringy bit that hangs out from one end of the shell. It looks like a small clump of hair. This can be pulled out with your fingers. You will also need some finely chopped onion, quite a lot of finely sliced fresh garlic, some white wine, some double cream and a lot of finely chopped parsley. I prefer the dark green curly parsley to the lighter flat leaf parsley as I think it has a much stronger and fresher flavor.
We melted a little better in a pan. Into this we added the onion and the garlic. We cooked for a couple of minutes and then added the white wine. This was brought up to the boil and the clams and mussels were added. We then covered the pot with a tight fitting lid. This was left for a few minutes. This needs to be shaken from time to time. After about four minutes we removed the lid. The smell should be fantastic . Now all the shells should be open. Again, at this point if there are shells that did not open at all, these should be discarded. Into the pot we added a good splash of double cream and mixed well with the fish and onions. We then stirred in the drained linguini. A little freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkle of sea salt and a good amount of chopped parsley. When all the ingredients are mixed together you can serve the dish immediately. The entire cooking time for this dish from start to finish should be about ten minutes.
Some people find that leaving all the shells in the dish is a bit fiddly to eat. I would suggest taking most of the fish out of the shells just after you remove the lid after cooking, before adding the cream and discarding most of the shells. But I think you need to keep some as it makes the presentation of the dish so much more dramatic.
I hope you enjoy it.
Paul Vincent, Head Chef.