Spaghetti allo Scoglio: A Trip to the Italian Coast on a Plate

Spaghetti allo scoglio is discovered throughout coastal Italy, and it is prized for its mixture of recent seafood, which may embody clams, mussels, shrimp, and cuttlefish or squid. Like spaghetti alle vongole, scoglio is not saucy; as an alternative it consists of lengthy strands of al dente pasta with a silky coating full of briny seafood taste, due to the mix of recent shellfish liquor, acidic white wine, a contact of recent tomato, and peppery olive oil.

I stay on Martha’s Winery, so the seafood out there to me is categorically completely different than the fragile, iridescent frutti di mare of the rocky Adriatic coast. The clams are bigger and their shells thicker, the shrimp are shipped frozen from Florida, and the squid is not almost as tender because the seppia (cuttlefish) present in Puglia, the place I first tasted pasta allo scoglio.

The important thing to the dish is getting the spaghetti to soak up the flavorful broth launched by the shellfish. Positive, you’ll be able to obtain this by boiling the pasta first after which ending it within the skillet with the seafood. However my buddy Daniela, chef and co-owner of Le Macàre, confirmed me a greater method after I visited her within the Salento, Puglia’s southern sub-peninsula, just a few years again.

She made the dish with spaghetti risottati, or spaghetti ready risotto-syle, the dry pasta cooking instantly within the skillet with the shellfish, in order that it absorbs the liquor from the clams and mussels as they steam open.

The outcomes had been gorgeous, with every strand of pasta infused with sapore di mare (the flavour of the ocean). To efficiently adapt my buddy Daniela’s scoglio methodology for this recipe, I knew I needed to cook dinner the varied seafood in levels to make sure that every thing was simply cooked via on the time of serving. Several types of seafood cook dinner at completely different charges, so I begin off by steaming the clams and mussels with aromatics and white wine, simply till they open up and launch their flavorful liquor. I take the shellfish out of the pan, and I complement the briny broth left behind with bottled clam juice and a bit of water, which I then use because the cooking liquid for the pasta. As soon as the combination involves a boil, I add the spaghetti.

Whereas I watch for the spaghetti to cook dinner, I shuck the meat from half of the clams and mussels. Whereas Daniel appropriately noticed in his spaghetti alle vongole recipe that digging via a pile of shells is not the perfect eating expertise, for this dish you must maintain among the shells for presentation, in any other case it simply is not scoglio. (“Scoglio” interprets to “reef.”)

As soon as the pasta is cooked “al chiodo” (to the nail)—a couple of minutes shy of al dente, simply starting to melt on the outside, however raw on the heart—I add quick-cooking shrimp, squid, and cherry tomatoes to the combo, tossing and stirring till the shrimp are opaque and the squid items are simply cooked via. The halved cherry tomatoes will launch a few of their candy juices into the sauce, however they’re going to nonetheless maintain their form (we’re not searching for burst tomatoes on this dish). I add the mussels and clams again to the skillet and toss every thing collectively till all of the seafood is heated via and the pasta is al dente, after which serve it instantly.