Moving further south from Campania, we head into the far southwest portion of the boot – Calabria. Frutti di Mare isn’t necessarily particularly Calabrian, but hearing the words always reminds me of Calabria. The town of Scilla in Calabria is the location of the mythical monster “Scylla.” As I understand the legend, navigating the strait of Messina put sailors between the original rock and a hard place – the enormous rock Scilla where the monster Scylla was believed to live and the whirlpool Charybdis in the strait. When I visited Scilla years ago, on an otherwise deserted beach facing the strait, there was a sign pointing toward the water that said simply “Frutti di Mare.” Now, it seems pretty obvious that there is frutti di mare in the sea, but I had to wonder who had put that sign on that beach and why.
In memory of that sign, our virtual travels to Calabria bring us a simple frutti di mare. You could add other seafood (being careful to add in proper stages to account for different cooking times). Unless you can buy just a few of each item, though, keep in mind that the more seafood you add, the bigger crowd you will need to eat this dish. For example, ideally I would have made the dish with about an equal number of mussels and clams, but while the clams were sold by the individual piece where I was buying my seafood this time, mussels were available only by the pound, which resulted in far more mussels than clams.
When preparing your seafood, remember that you are putting the shells into the sauce that you are going to eat, so wash those shells well. You can find all kinds of recommendations about how to soak clams and mussels prior to washing – I don’t soak in fresh water. I have not had problems with grit inside the seafood purchased from good vendors, but I do make sure that the outsides of the shells are clean by using a brush on each one under running water.
The recipe below is as I made this dish most recently, and it was good, but I felt like it needed a bit more punch. The next time around, I might add an anchovy or two and a little hot pepper to the olive oil and let that cook until you can easily crush up the anchovy before adding the garlic and proceeding from there.
Frutti di Mare
Course: PastaIngredients
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 28 ounce can plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/4 Italian dry white wine
12 littleneck clams – shells scrubbed
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 pound mussels – shells scrubbed and beards removed
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound cooked thick spaghetti or chitarra
Directions
- Heat olive oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until soft and just light golden in color. Add the tomatoes and their juice and the wine, bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer or about 20-25 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit.
- Increase heat again to medium. Add the littlenecks and cook covered for about 2 minutes. Add the mussels and shrimp and cook covered for about 6-8 minutes more until the littleneck and mussel shells have opened. Discard any that do not open.
- Stir parsley into seafood mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately over pasta.
If you are still reading, here’s your random travel memory for the day. When in Calabria thirty years ago, we planned to spend the night in Reggio Calabria before taking the ferry to Messina the next day. We had been in Italy for a few weeks on a Eurorail pass trip at that point, and we had done well with always planning to arrive in a new city well before dark. This particular day, the train was late, and it was very late and very much after dark when we arrived in Reggio. We were not too worried about it initially because our Let’s Go travel guide told us that the youth hostel was right across the square from the train station. Alas, that hostel was closed. So there we were across from the train station in Reggio trying to figure out our next step by looking through Let’s Go for other options, when a car full of young men approached us and offered us a ride. We, of course, did not accept. They then asked whether they could help us, and we asked if they knew the location of another hostel listed in the guide (remember – 30 years ago – no smart phones, no GPS, just paper maps). They did not. They drove off. A few minute later they found us again, told us they had found the hostel, drove slowly with their headlights on to direct us there while we walked (still not getting in that car), and then they drove away. I’ve always loved that memory of random strangers going out of their way to make sure we safely found lodging that night.