For the most romantic dining experience, I long to revisit La Sponda in Positano. The decor and view are unmatched…and the candles! I have never seen so many in one room! Our meal there was so memorable.
In Italy, Michael and I always ordered pasta as a first course before moving on to fish or meat. At La Sponda, we started with lemon, anchovy angel hair. I don’t claim to know exactly how they prepared it, but here’s how I make it at home for a simple celebratory meal:
Start by sautéing some chopped garlic in olive oil. Then add a can of drained anchovies and smash them as they cook down. You can let the garlic turn golden brown, but before it burns, pour some lemon juice into the pot and take it off the heat while whisking. The Amalfi lemons in Italy are sweeter than what we have at home, so I usually add a pinch of sugar to this sauce. (If you have Meyer lemons, they are great for this dish.) Add about the same amount of olive oil as lemon juice and toss with your cooked pasta and some chopped parsley. Angel hair is fantastic, but it’s easy to overcook it and it sucks up all the sauce rather quickly, so I often use thin spaghetti instead.
Add some julienned zucchini when tossing pasta with the sauce for some extra veggies. I like to put my julienned zucchini in a colander, sprinkle some salt over it and let some of the moisture drain out of it while I prepare the rest of the meal. It slumps down to a noodle-like texture that way.
Ingredients for Lemon Anchovy Pasta:
- thin spaghetti
- wilted, julienned zucchini
- garlic
- olive oil
- anchovies
- lemon juice
- sugar
- parsley
Making Calamari Steak
After pounding out calamari steaks thin with a mallet to tenderize them, give them a bread coating using flour seasoned with garlic powder, salt and French thyme. Then dip in egg and afterwards coat in panko bread crumbs for a crispy crust. The calamari only takes about a minute or two to cook on each side in a medium-hot skillet with grapeseed oil on the stove top.
Michael grew up eating abalone that had been pounded out this way, but it became so difficult to find due to overfishing. So, here’s what his family decided to do: make (squid) calamari steak, abalone style. Once you start making it yourself, you will never order it in a restaurant again.
Ingredients for Breaded Calamari Steak:
- calamari steaks
- flour
- garlic powder
- French thyme
- salt
- beaten egg
- panko bread crumbs
- grapeseed oil
What if you have pasta left over? Repurpose it by adding broccoli, cauliflower and canned salmon for lunch the next day.
Do you love seafood with pasta as much as we do? Learn how to get Skillful With Shellfish next.
