Pan-fried Red Mullet and Cavatelli Pasta
An adapted version of an Italian recipe by Laura Zavan
Ingredients
Cavatelli Pasta
- 100 g Flour T55 or plain flour
- 100 g Fine Semolina
- 100 ml Warm water
- More semolina for the work surface
Crunchy breadcrumbs
- 50 g White breadcrumbs
- 30 g Fresh parsley
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- 1 Lemon
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
Pan-fried fish
- 400 g Red mullet fillets
- 1 Clove garlic
- 1 tsp Crushed chillies
- 50 ml White wine
- 2 Tbsp Water from the pasta
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- Salt
Instructions
Cavatelli Pasta
- To make the pasta, put the flour and semolina in a mixing bowl. Add the water bit by bit and mix together with your fingers until everything is combined into a dough. Put the dough on the work surface and kneed by hand for 8 minutes. Put the dough in cling film for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle the work surface with semolina. Cut the dough into smaller pieces and roll into a cylinder about 1cm thick. Chop up into 1cm pieces.
- Method 1: Press each small piece with the index and middle finger, letting a small amount of dough between the finger. You should now have a flat piece of dough with a small raised section in the middle. Lift the pasta piece and turnover and roll into shell type shape i.e with a cavity in the middle.
- Method 2: Press each small piece over the prongs of a fork
- and curl the pasta as you remove it from the fork forming it into a shell.
- Put each piece into a clean cotton tea towel (or linen couche cloth) and leave covered for a couple of hours to dry out.
Breadcrumbs
- Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl, Chop the parsley leaves and set aside the stalks to be used later. Strip the rosemary from the sprig. Zest the lemon. Add the herb and zest to the breadcrumbs with the olive oil and mix. Cover and leave for at least an hour.
Assembly
- After all the preparation, the final steps come together very quickly.
- Heat up a frying pan and add the breadcrumb mixture and stir occasionally until the breadcrumbs are all toasted through.
- Put boiling water in a pan and add salt. Add the pasta and allow to simmer for up to 8 minutes depending thickness and how much it has dried.
- Peel and roughly chop the garlic clove. Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan or wok and heat up. Add the garlic, the parsley stalks left over from earlier and the dried chillies. Add the wine and salt. Cook through until it evaporates then add the fish and cook one minute each side.
- Strain the pasta, saving some of the water in cup or small bowl. Put the pasta in a serving dish.
- Break or cut the pieces of mullet in the pan and then lift out the pieces of fish, leaving the parsley stalks and garlic pieces behind, and place on top of the pasta. Add 2 Tbsp of extra virgin oil, 2 Tbsp of the pasta water and half of the breadcrumbs. Mix together gently and then sprinkle the remainder of the breadcrumbs on top and serve immediately with lemon wedges.
- Serve with a green vegetable. The serving below is with roasted romanesco (cut into florets, sprayed with oil and roasted for 20 mins at 200ºC)
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!