Scoglio Linguine

I made this recently for the amazing Laura Fantucci from Wardrobe Icons for a summer dinner party. She requested this recipe which mainly originates from Campania and uses lots of crustaceans with scoglio meaning rock. Laura wanted to throw some lobster into the mix which adds another depth of flavour from their shells but you don’t have to if you want to keep costs down. If not using you can just swap the lobby for more shellfish. There is something so rustic and beautiful about this dish that can’t fail to whisk you off to the Italian Riviera. Make sure you throw on some jazz while you're cooking!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

160g dried linguine pasta / gluten free is good too!

275g baby plum tomatoes, halved

2 large garlic cloves, diced

1 banana shallot, diced

150g king prawns (shell on or off)

3 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

large handful fresh basil, roughly torn

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 handfuls mussels

2 handful clams

1 lobster tail, sliced in half

5-6 tbsp hot vegetable stock

1/2 glass dry white wine

sea salt and black pepper

zest and juice of half a lemon

Prepare everything before you start to cook to make the whole process run smoothly. Set a large saucepan of salted water to boil and set a frying pan with a lid to a medium to high heat. When the water is boiling add the pasta to cook following the packets instructions and make sure you set a timer to keep track. For perfectly al dente I always take off about two minutes from what the packet says.

While the pasta is cooking you need to start on the sauce. Add the olive oil into the frying pan followed by the diced shallot. Let this soften for 2 minutes before adding in the garlic followed by the plum tomatoes. Stir everything around the pan for two minutes and then add half the parsley, oregano, lobster tail, clams, mussels and white wine. Turn up the heat and allow this to cook for 1 minute and then pour over the stock and cover the pan with the lid. Cook for 2 minutes and then stir in the prawns and frying for another 2 minutes. The shellfish should have opened up their shells by now and you can turn off the heat and season the sauce with salt, pepper and the torn basil. Keep covered until the pasta is ready and perfectly al dente and use tongs to fish the pasta straight out of the water and into the seafood pan. Toss everything together and add the lemon zest, juice and leftover parsley.

Serve straight away!