ARETE (GURNARD) LINGUINE
Gurnard is a
common fish in Spain and is increasingly available in the UK. It is a useful addition to fish stews but I
usually roast it in the oven wrapped in foil with herbs, lemon and seasoning.
Recently, however, I saw a recipe for
Gurnard Pasta by Russell Field of Hastings in the Hastings & Rye Fish
Cook Book (2) and as a lover of Gurnard and of seafood pasta, decided to do
my own recipe.
Gurnard are recommended
by chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as a
sustainable alternative to popular, overfished varieties. In"The River Cottage Fish Book” , Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests a recipe for Pot Roasted Gurnard. I usually cook gurnerd in the oven, wrapped in foil with lemon, garlic, herbs and seasoning. Often I would use ginger and sumac.
Since a number of celebrity chefs, such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver have championed the cause of sustainable
fishing, the range of varieties of fish on sale in supermarkets has increased and
so has price. However, fish such as
Gurnard, Dabs, Megrim Sole etc are still much lower in price than more popular
varieties and remain very good value. I
bought two reasonably
sized red gurnard in Morrisson’s last week for £1.98! I used them for the following recipe.
Russell
Field's recipe is based on a tomato sauce and does not use pimentón or
peppers but does add freshly crushed garlic to the final sauce. I will try his recipe some time but I wanted
to give it a bit of Spanish flavour so here is my version.
Ingredients:
1 Gurnard
(cleaned)1
1 onion
chopped
2 cloves of
garlic
4 ripe
chopped tomatoes
1 medium red
chilli (optional)2
1 tsp
paprika/ pimentón 3
1 red pepper
Basil
Coriander
Method
Gently fry
the onions in olive oil to soften, do not let brown. Add the chopped garlic and chopped or sliced
pepper (and one chopped medium hot red chilli) When softened add the chopped
tomatoes and a teaspoon of pimentón, dulce or picante whichever
you prefer and some shredded basil leaves and continue cooking gently for 5 minutes.
Pour sauce
into a saucepan with close fitting lid large enough for the whole gurnard. Stir in a glass of red wine and place the
whole fish on top. Put the lid on and simmer for 20 minutes.
Take off heat
and remove the fish. Make sure you don't lose any sauce! I left the sauce as it was but if you
prefer a smooth sauce you could liquidise it in a food processor at this stage.
When the fish
is cool enough to handle, remove all the flesh, ensuring that it is bone-free
and put in a separate bowl. When this
has been done, check the fish again for bones and when you are satisfied that
you have removed them all, add the fish to the sauce and reheat gently.
Meanwhile
cook the pasta of your choice – I used linguine. When the pasta is cooked, al dente, do
not drain but lift out and stir into the sauce.
The water adhering to the pasta will make the sauce creamier. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves and serve with a fresh green salad.
Notes
1 Usually fishmongers and
supermarkets in UK will sell mainly Red Gurnard (Arete in Spain), but Spanish markets
frequently have other varieties and you could use the larger Bejel (Tub Gurnard) which is often drier flesh than Red Gurnard when cooked so lends itself to this method of cooking. Rubio or Borracho (Streaked Gurnard) is popular in Spain and north Africa, often cooked in a tomato sauce. Armado or Malarmat (Armed Gurnard), and other smaller gurnard are
excellent for and probably best left for fish stews.
2 I like seafood pasta to have a bit
of heat and use a medium hot red chilli and a teaspoon of hot paprika.
If you do not want so much heat, omit the chilli and use sweet paprika
3 Whether you are using hot paprika, pimentón
picante or sweet paprika, pimentón dulce, I
would recommend using Spanish pimentón de la vera for
its smokey flavour.
John Austin
London
16 May 2014
