Trenette with swordfish sauce
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 300 gr swordfish
- 10 gr capers
- 30 gr extra virgin olive oil
- 400 gr Pachino tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes)
- 2 cloves garlic
- A handful of finely chopped parsley
- A pinch of salt
- Pepper to taste
- 400 gr trenette pasta or linguine
Instructions
- Let's start from the fish. Make sure you get fresh swordfish cutlets for this recipe: the fish needs to be high quality, so that it doesn't "melt" entirely into the sauce while cooking.
- Remove the skin around the cutlets, then cut it into cubes of about an inch. Set aside.
- Wash the cherry tomatoes, dry them and cut them in a half. Once you're done, heat up the extra virgin olive oil in a pan and add a clove of garlic. You should keep it whole, so you can remove it whenever the sauce has taken up a bit of flavor. Once the oil is hot, add the tomatoes.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, so that the tomatoes release some of their water, then add the capers to the sauce. Cover with a lid and let it simmer for 20 to 25 minutes on low heat. You should obtain a sauce where the tomatoes maintained part of their shape, but already started to turn into purée.
- Take another pan, add some extra virgin olive oil and another clove of garlic to it. When the oil is hot, add the swordfish and sauté it, adding some salt to taste. After a minute or two, add the white wine to the fish and let it cook gently for a few more minutes. You won't need too much time: swordfish cooks quickly enough and you want it to keep its texture.
- Once it's ready, mix together the swordfish and the tomato sauce, stirring gently on a low heat for a couple of minutes.
- Bring water to the boil and add salt to your taste. Cook your trenette (or linguine) following package instruction. My advice is to keep them slightly more "al dente" than you would usually do, as you'll need to sauté the pasta with the sauce before serving.
- Once the pasta is ready, drain it and keep some of the cooking water aside. Heat up the sauce, add the pasta and stir gently, adding some cooking water if you notice the sauce's too thick. Once the pasta is well coated, turn the heat off, plate and serve with some chopped parsley on top.
Notes
This sauce should be enjoyed straight away and shouldn't be kept for more than one day in the fridge.
If you'd like to give it an extra kick, you may like to add some salted anchovy fillets to the tomatoes, or some fresh thyme and mint.
White wines are preferred here. You should go for something light and not too sparkly. Bianchetta Genovese DOC, Melissa Bianco DOC and San Vito di Luzzi DOC are all good matches.