A feast of seafood from fancy to humble

It’s not every day a restaurant invites an outside chef to cook in its kitchen

By: Faith Bahadurian
   It’s not every day a restaurant invites an outside chef to cook in its kitchen, but at the Baldassari Regency in Trenton, three chefs from top Washington, D. C., restaurants were invited to produce the restaurant’s fourth annual Feast of the Seven Fishes.
   Usually served on Christmas Eve, this extravagant (but extremely well-priced) feast took place in early December, and the roomful of enthusiastic diners enjoyed, in fact, nine seafood dishes on the updated menu, prepared by Enzo Febbraro of Ristorante Filomena, Domenico Cornacchia of Café Milano and Osteria Sette, and Cesare Lanfranconi of Ristorante Tosca.
   Chef Febbraro is an old hand at the Baldassari, as he has often visited to consult on the menu or cook for one of the special dinners the restaurant puts on a few times each year. (For information, visit www.baldassari.com.) With each chef producing a course or two, we dined on delicacies such as marinated yellowtail, house-cured salmon, Dover sole, sturgeon carpaccio, and turbot.
   That evening pretty much got the ball rolling for my over-indulgent holidays, but now, greeting the New Year, my thoughts turn to simpler fare, something comforting on a cold night. Still craving seafood, I turn my attention to some of its humbler forms — the anchovy, the sardine and squid.
LINGUINE ALL’ ALMAFITANA
(Linguine with walnuts and anchovies)
adapted from "Naples at Table,"
Arthur Schwartz, 1998,
HarperCollins
Serves 2 or 3.
   ½ pound linguine
   3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
   3 large garlic cloves, lightly smashed
   1/3 to ½ cup shelled walnuts, coarsely chopped
   1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste
   4 whole salted anchovies, rinsed and filleted, or 8 oil-packed anchovy fillets, rinsed
   
Cook the linguine in plenty of well-salted boiling water.
   Meanwhile, in a deep 10-inch skillet or sauté pan, over low heat, combine the oil and garlic, cooking garlic until it is soft and barely colors on both sides, smashing it into the oil a few times to release its flavor.
   When the garlic is just beginning to color on one side, add the nuts and the pepper flakes. Remove the garlic as it is done on the other side, and continue frying the walnuts and pepper another minute or so.
   Increase the heat to medium, add the anchovies, and smash them into the oil with a wooden spoon. As soon as they dissolve — which is almost immediately — scoop out ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and add it to the pan. Remove the sauce from the heat until the pasta is cooked.
   When the pasta is still a little undercooked — about 2 minutes less than usual — drain it, then turn it into the pan with the sauce. Cook the linguine in the sauce, stirring and tossing constantly, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the pasta is tender enough to eat. Serve immediately, making sure each plate has about the same amount of walnuts.
PASTA CON SARDE
(Pasta with sardines)
adapted from "365 Ways to Cook Pasta,"
Marie Simmons, 1988,
HarperCollins
Serves 4.
The author notes that in some versions of this Sicilian dish, saffron threads and tomato paste are simmered in the sauce.
   6 tablespoons olive oil
   ½ cup chopped onion
   3 flat anchovies, drained, blotted dry, finely chopped
   ¼ cup finely chopped, feathery fennel fronds
   ¼ cup pine nuts
   1 tablespoon raisins, soaked in boiling water 10 minutes and drained
   1 can (3¾ ounces) sardines packed in oil, drained and patted dry
   12 ounces bucatini or perciatelli (long spaghetti with a hole down the middle)
   Toasted fresh bread crumbs
   
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion; sauté over low heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the anchovies, sauté, stirring, over low heat until dissolved. Add the fennel fronds, pine nuts, raisins, and sardines; heat through stirring gently, about 5 minutes.
   Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente, or firm to the bite, about 10 minutes; drain. Spoon into a serving bowl; add sauce; sprinkle with bread crumbs; toss lightly and serve.
CALAMARI RIPIENE
ALLA SALSA DI ROSMARINO
(Stuffed Calamari in Rosemary Sauce)
from "Mare,"
Evan Kleiman, 1993,
William Morrow and Company
Serves 4 to 6.
   3 slices day-old country bread, crusts removed
   Milk or water for soaking
   1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
   1 celery stalk, peeled and minced
   ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
   3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
   1½ pounds cleaned squid, tentacles finely chopped
   5 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
   Small handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley
   Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
   ½ cup dry white wine
   10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
   1 small sprig fresh rosemary
   
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Soak the bread in milk or water until soft. Squeeze it dry, then chop it. Cook the onion and celery in ¼ cup of the olive oil until soft. Add one third of the garlic and the chopped squid tentacles, and sauté until the tentacles firm up. Transfer to a bowl and add the chopped bread, 1 tablespoon of the chopped tomatoes, half the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.
   Stuff squid sacs half full with the bread filling, leaving room for the stuffing to swell. Fasten open ends with toothpicks. Heat remaining ¼ cup olive oil in a medium skillet. Add remaining garlic and sauté briefly. Add remaining tomatoes, the white wine, basil and rosemary, and cook over moderately high heat until tomatoes begin to break down and form a sauce. Arrange the stuffed squid in a lightly oiled oven-to-table baking dish, and pour the tomato sauce over the squid. Bake until tender, approximately 1 hour. Serve hot.