My sous chef Gracie and I were watching an episode of
Giada at Home yesterday, and she made a dish that I knew (most) of my family would love; Seafood Fra Diavolo. It was a good episode, guest starring Bobby Flay, and had lots of good nuggets of information. The recipe on Foodnetwork.com
is here. I made a mental note to remember to do this at home someday, and after a somewhat lazy day doing things around the house, decided that there is no time like the present.
The first step is to make a chili oil, infusing olive oil over low heat with a bunch of dried crushed red peppers. The tomato base of the sauce is then made by charring tomatoes and an Anaheim (mild green) chili on the grill (or a grill pan) with some salt and some chili oil.
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| Charred tomato and Anaheim chili |
The split lobster tails are then boiled to begin cooking before they are finished in the pan. The linguine is then cooked in the lobster water...
After the lobster has been boiled to a mostly cooked state, it is put into the pan with the shrimp and cooked with some (you guessed it...) chili oil. When mostly cooked, but not completely, the shrimp and lobster are set aside, and the lobster meat is removed from the shell and chopped up.
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| Shrimp and Lobster |
Meanwhile, oil, shallots, garlic and butter are added to a dutch oven or similar heavy pot to begin to brown gently. After a few minutes the white wine is added and the clams are put in to steam. After a few minutes more the tomatoes and chilies are added into the pot with the clams. Tap the clams to help them open (removing any that won't open). At the last moment, add the shrimp and lobster into the pot and then add the linguine and some grated parmesan just long enough to incorporate.
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| The end result |
The end result is a very nice mix of seafood in a brothy sauce with chunks of tomato. It was not overly hot, but had a little zing to it. I would add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper on my plate. The three of us that I expected to love it did, and Gracie had leftover chicken curry from last night. Which is about what I expected would happen... As an aside, if you are looking for a Fra Diavolo with a red sauce, there is a ver good one in
The Best Recipe (by the publishers of
Cook's Illustrated).
Work - Moderate. This looked like a simple enough recipe on paper, and when they made it on TV it looked very easy (but then again with cuts and editing and a staff to help out, what doesn't). In reality, it wasn't too bad but was involved enough to rate as not easy.
Time - All told, this took in excess of an hour (as the recipe indicates) and I was busy most if not all of the time. This was not a "get it going and forget about it" recipe by any means.
Cleanup - Cleanup needs were moderate to high as I used a bunch of different bowls etc during the various stages. If I planned better I probably could have done a more efficient job, but in reality I didn't; there was a decent amount of cleanup, and a decent amount of stovetop splatter from all the chili oil cooking. There were shrimp to peel and devein, lobster tails to disect, clams to scrub etc...
Cost - Medium/High on cost. I made this with 2 small lobster tails, a dozen littleneck clams and 2/3 of a pound of medium sized shrimp. To moderate the cost somewhat you could skip the lobster and use more shrimp instead, but because of the fresh seafood you would have a hard time getting this into the "cheap/economical" category.
Rating - 7 out of 10 overall, but a weekend meal for sure. It tastes terrific but is not cheap, quick, or simple.
