This delicious dish is best cooked with really fresh shellfish, as the seawater trapped inside the shells is what makes it taste so good
Whole raw king prawns are also necessary for a great flavour.
Ingredients
• 1kg mixed seafood, such as squid rings around 1 cm thick, clams, queen scallops, mussels, raw whole king prawns
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1/2 red chilli, finely sliced
• handful parsley, roughly chopped
• 50ml white wine
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• good pinch salt
• 30g parmesan, finely grated
• 350g linguine or 350g spaghetti
Method
1 Clean the shellfish removing the beards from the mussels and drop the clams from a height of around 15 cm into a bowl one by one to check for sand – it will come out as they land if dropped from this height.
2 Discard any that are broken or are open and don’t close with a tap as they are dead.
3 Remove the tails and shells from the bodies of the prawns leaving their heads on.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until it is only just al dente.
4 Heat the oil in a large frying pan with a lid, add the squid and fry for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood, the garlic, chilli and parsley. Put the lid on the pan and continue to cook for around 4–5 minutes, shaking the pan frequently.
5 When all the shellfish’s shells have opened, pour in the wine and let it reduce, uncovered, until the strong smell of alcohol has dissipated. Discard any unopened shellfish. Then add the cherry tomatoes and salt.
6 Drain the pasta and toss it into the sauce. Let it cook in the juices for a couple of minutes.
7 Divide the Parmesan into the bottom of 4 warm shallow bowls and top with the seafood.
Recipe courtesy of Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi, extracted from Venice: Lost and Found
