A pasta dish perfect for summer brimming with the flavours of green summer vegetables and the zing of lemon. The white fish makes it light and easy to digest in hotter weather, not to mention low in fat—okay, so maybe not with the cream—and healthier dining.
Not entirely fished up
This summer vegetable linguine with lemon and white fish is my attempt to recreate a meal I enjoyed in Trieste many years ago. As usual, I bombarded the chef who cooked it with a myriad of questions. I think I got to grips with it, but over the years I've filled in a little with tricks learned elsewhere from Italian cooking that might not make this exactly the original.
There are a few things that are notable about this dish. For a start, it doesn't use the iconic Italian pasta sauce ingredient of tomatoes in any way. Nor does it use those heavier herbs that belt out show tunes to the taste receptors—such as oregano. Rather, it focusses on the combination of very green, fresh vegetable flavours, given a citric lift with lemon —and base palate notes of mushrooms and caramelised fennel.
Secondly, it doesn't really matter what white fish you use. Here I've gone for a combination of lightly smoked sea bass and Norwegian cod. But it works well with any saltwater white fish. Similarly, while I advise using fillets with the skin on, there's no reason you cant use something like defrosted frozen cod fillets. Simply be more vigilant in the first stage of searing since the skin affords a layer of "protection".
Furthermore, you really don't need to use the fish at all: this is great as a lacto-vegetarian dish without it.
And, thirdly, I'm using widely available tenderstem broccoli here, but if you can get your hands on rapini, use that instead. That's what was used in the dish when I first enjoyed it.
I'm serving it with a simple salad here. but that's totally optional. I've gone for a combination of leaves that include pea shoots to echo a key flavour of the dish and bringing in those almost alarmingly absent tomatoes in raw form. But, hey, rock your salad as you wish
These portions serve 2 to 3 diners. You'll figure out how to scale up or down.
Timing
This is one of those dishes that, though simple and quick, does require timing to pull all the elements together. You can definitely cook the pasta sauce before. But, even then, timing reheating it is still required. Obviously, whether you steam certain vegetables using more traditional stove-top methods or microwave steamers also has an impact on timing.
The method below is the method I used on this occasion, a straight-up, back-to-back cooking situation. So you might need to alter the order or timing of things if you do it a different way.
Shopping list
for the summer vegetable linguine
Enough linguine (or spaghetti or tagliatelle ); fresh or dried, to serve two or three people; probably circa 200 to 250g
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 large brown onion (yes, in this case it's about the sauce's colour), cubed
½ tspn turmeric
3 or 4 celery stalks, finely sliced
200g fresh green asparagus, chopped into fairly large pieces
200g large closed-cup mushrooms, sliced
1.5 cups garden peas (or petit pois); fresh or frozen
Approx. 150g fresh tenderstem broccoli
1 cube of vegetable stock diluted in 500ml boiling water
A generous clutch of fresh basil, leaves plucked from stems
A generous clutch of fresh curly parsley (not flat leaf), chopped
Approx. 100ml fresh single cream
½ a glass white wine (optional)
A little olive oil
1 fresh lemon
salt and pepper to taste
for the fennel and white fish
4 sustainably sourced small-to-medium fillets of white fish of choice (ideally skin on)
A tbspn of whole small capers
2 tspns chopped smoked garlic
A little olive oil
1 small fresh fennel, cut into slices
1 fresh lemon
salt and pepper to taste
The salad
A selection of fresh green salad leaves of choice
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
a little balsamic vinegar
a little extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Method
the summer vegetable linguine sauce
In a fairly deep pot with a lid, heat a little olive oil on a medium-to-high heat. When hot, add the garlic and sizzle until it turns golden. Add the onion and stir in. Cover and sweat, stirring occasionally. When the onions soften slightly, add the celery and stir in. Cover and sweat for 5 to 6mins, adding a few tbspns of water at a time to prevent sticking—only if needed
When the celery changes colour, becoming slightly paler—it doesn't actually have to be soft—add the mushrooms and stir in. Re-cover and sweat together for 5 or 6mins, until the mushrooms soften. Add the turmeric, a little black pepper, the white wine and the juice of ½ the lemon. Stir in and allow the liquid to cook off until almost dry
Add the chopped parsley to the top of the ingredients and gently begin to pour in the liquid vegetable stock, a little at a time, stirring the ingredients until the full 500ml is added. By now, the ingredients should be bubbling vigorously. Re-cover and allow the ingredients to bubble at a brutish simmer for at least 12mins, stirring occasionally
While this is happening, par-steam your asparagus (about 2mins in a microwave; about 5mins using a traditional steamer)
Only when the liquid in the pot shows real signs of reducing, add the remainder of the juice of the lemon and stir in. Add the basil leaves to the top of your ingredients. Re-cover, reduce to a low heat and allow to simmer very gently for a further 10mins
Stir the ingredients. If the liquid has become too reduced, add a little boiling water. Add the par-steamed asparagus, re-cover and simmer for a further 5mins. Then add two thirds of your peas. Re-cover and simmer for a further 4 to 5mins
Add the single cream and stir in. Leave the pot uncovered, stirring regularly. Keep an eye on how vigorously the cream is cooking. If it boils furiously with a white foam rising from the pot, reduce the heat immediately. Because the cream is being added to a fairly "watery" reduction, it's difficult to predict how long it will take to thicken—anywhere from 7 to 15mins—but it's important to remain attentive during this part of the process. As soon as it begins to thicken—tasting it is the best way to tell; how it's become "fused" as part of the sauce—remove it from the heat. Make sure not to overcook it or else you'll end up with a kind of vegetable panna cotta
The fennel and white fish
Before you start cooking your fennel and fish, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Season your fish with a little black pepper (and salt, if you wish—I don't bother)
While the pasta water is heating, In a large, flat frying pan, heat a little olive oil on a medium-to-high heat. When hot, add the smoked garlic and sizzle for a few minutes. Add the capers, stir together, then spread around the pan. Add the slices of fennel and allow them to cook for at least 6 to 7mins on one side; until they begin to soften
Turn the fennel and drizzle over half of the juice of the lemon. Allow this to caramelise, turning the fennel slices as needed
Once caramelised, remove to a plate. Ideally, at this point, the pasta pot water is boiling furiously. Add your pasta (dried linguine usually takes 12 to 14mins to cook). Thus, start cooking your fish a few mins after your linguine has started cooking
In the same pan in which you cooked the fennel, add a little more oil. Ensure it's hot before adding the fish. Add, skin side down, and sear from about 3mins. Drizzle the remainder of the juice over the uncooked side before turning.
Steam your tenderstem broccoli and peas—remember it will take less time in the microwave—while you cook the fish. And, if you cooked it some time before, ensure the pasta sauce is also being reheated
Turn the fish—you might need to do so a couple of times. It may also start to break up—don't worry about this. When the fish has nearly cooked, add the fennel back to the pan. If the fish is fully cooked—remember that it shouldn't be overcooked—before the pasta is ready, remove from the heat and cover to keep warm
When the linguine is cooked, al dente, drain and return to the hot pot in which it was cooked. Stir in the sauce so that all of the pasta is coated
Plate the pasta dressed in the sauce. Break up the fish into large bite-sized pieces and add this on top of the pasta together with the caramelised fennel. Finally add your steamed tenderstem broccoli and extra peas
Take to table and serve with your salad of choice
Alternatives
This is by default a pescatarian dish. The lacto-vegetarian version couldn't be easier: simply don't add the fish after you caramelise the fennel. As to a vegan version, I haven't tried plant-based alternatives to cream with this recipe. Who knows? Maybe they work well...
Carnivores? Oddly, I have actually cooked this with sliced, lightly smoked chicken breast in lieu of the fish and that worked really well.
Pairings
For the outing cooked here, I tried it with a supposedly credible German riesling that, in my opinion, was oddly sweet compared with the winery's claims and not really a great match. So, not really going to get into that one.
In the past, two things that have worked really well were a brilliant Col di Luna—no, don't ask me which one—and various Albariños. Clearly more research is needed.
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