Recreating Croatia; Seafood Pasta

One of my favorite meals and things about Croatia was the access to freshly caught fish, right out of the Adriatic. Most of the restaurants frequent the local markets and buy their fish there. In Dubrovnik I had seafood pasta that was hands down one of the best I’ve had. La Pasta is a little joint tucked inside of the Radisson hotel; if I make it back to Dubrovnik, I’ll likely have to stop in for a repeat of it.

I haven’t attempted to recreate this meal yet, but tonight is the night. Will, who accompanied me in Dubrovnik also had this dish and agrees it was one of the best of the trip. He’s coming over for dinner tonight, so seafood pasta it is!

I’m using a recipe from Food Network (Giada’s Grilled Seafood Pasta Fra Diavolo) as a guide because I want to knock this one out of the park (and I really don’t want to screw up expensive seafood).

I pretty much adapted the entire recipe and you can find it here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/grilled-seafood-pasta-fra-diavolo.html

Here’s what I modified:

I added two cloves of garlic to the chili oil because I heart garlic and I just felt like I wanted a little more of its presence in the dish.

I love tomato sauce. This recipe doesn’t make the sauce very saucy. So I pulsed the tomatoes and chili in the food processor just a few times to get it chunky but not pureed.

Rather than using store bought pasta, I make fresh linguine. It’s so much better and it just makes sense to use the pasta maker that Will bought me for Christmas. This is how I make it:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 eggs

½ tsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

On a board or in a bowl add flour and create a small well in the middle for the eggs, oil and salt. With a fork, slowly mix in the flour until it becomes a ball or until you can handle with your hands. Gather the dough into a ball and knead until it is smooth, 5-10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap for at least 20 minutes. The dough can be stored in a refrigerator for 24 hours, but make sure to bring it back to room temp before rolling out.

Cut the dough into fourths and press flat until about ¼ inch thick. Run each piece of pasta through a pasta rolling machine, adjusting the setting each time. I usually go from 0-6 on my Marcato. Then cut the pasta as desired or using the linguine cutter.

P.S.: you may need to add more water to the dough if it’s dry. Add water in very small doses; e.g.: ½ tsp at a time. Dough is temperamental so sometimes the recipe is fine as is, others (like today) required 1.5 tsp water more.

P. P. S: when you are cooking the pasta it will not take as long as store bought. Let it boil for about 3 minutes and check it after. Once it’s floating on the top its ready.

And since it is summer, let’s have a light and yummy dish; stone fruit shortcakes. 

Now, if only we had some Posip!