NY Times food writer Martha Rose Shulman recently wrote about an easy way to eat more fish in 2011. Shulman writes about the health benefits, as well as the hefty price tag that seafood carries throughout most of the country. Looking overseas, she writes, might provide an answer.
"While researching the cooking of Sicily some years ago," she writes, "I spent an afternoon with a chef who had a small restaurant in Palermo, where I watched him take a single piece of tuna and turn it into a pasta sauce that fed four of us. "
My dad remembers Friday meals with his grandmother that featured a similar main course. Keeping with the Catholic tradition, she would add fish - usually tuna - to the family sauce and serve it with spaghetti.
Shulman also shares a fish ragu recipe that's "a sort of fish ragù common throughout Sicily and Southern Italy:"
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
I followed the recipe yesterday, but substituted Christopher Sauce for the canned tomatoes and omitted the white wine (my great grandmother's aversion to wine is a story for another day). Cooking with two kinds of fish (anchovies and tuna) upholds my family's belief that a ragu is best when it includes at least two (and sometimes three) different proteins. Plus, the anchovies give the sauce a richness that compliments the winter weather.
"While researching the cooking of Sicily some years ago," she writes, "I spent an afternoon with a chef who had a small restaurant in Palermo, where I watched him take a single piece of tuna and turn it into a pasta sauce that fed four of us. "
My dad remembers Friday meals with his grandmother that featured a similar main course. Keeping with the Catholic tradition, she would add fish - usually tuna - to the family sauce and serve it with spaghetti.
Shulman also shares a fish ragu recipe that's "a sort of fish ragù common throughout Sicily and Southern Italy:"
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound swordfish or tuna steaks, skinned and cut in approximately 1/2-inch dice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), minced
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes (optional)
2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice, or 2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced or grated
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 pound penne or fusilli
I followed the recipe yesterday, but substituted Christopher Sauce for the canned tomatoes and omitted the white wine (my great grandmother's aversion to wine is a story for another day). Cooking with two kinds of fish (anchovies and tuna) upholds my family's belief that a ragu is best when it includes at least two (and sometimes three) different proteins. Plus, the anchovies give the sauce a richness that compliments the winter weather.
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