The Pasta I Crave Every Time I’m near the Sea - Recipe by Rebekah Peppler
Ingredients
45 g coarse, day-old bread crumbs
75mL extra-virgin olive oil
1 fennel bulb, bulb very thinly sliced and fronds finely chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 shallots, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Red pepper flakes
455 g dried pasta, such as bucatini, spaghetti, or linguine
55 g unsalted European butter, at room temperature
Pinch saffron threads, gently crushed with your fingertips or with a mortar and pestle
910 g small clams, cleaned
1 cup marinated lemons (recipe follows)
240mL dry white wine
Lemon wedges, for serving
Marinated lemons:
360mL extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 Tbs pink or black peppercorns, lightly crushed
2 bay leaves
Fine sea salt
4 whole lemons, thinly sliced into 4 mm rounds (use standard lemons with thin rinds or Meyer lemons)
Method
Marinated lemons:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the oil, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is golden around the edges, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt.
Add the lemon slices to a large glass storage jar and pour the warm garlic-oil mixture over the top. Let sit at room temperature overnight, then store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Pasta dish:
In a small skillet over medium-high heat, toast the bread crumbs in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the fennel fronds and lemon zest and cook for 30 seconds more. Season with salt and pepper.
Set aside.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of the olive oil until hot. Add the shallots and sliced fennel and cook, stirring often, until the shallots are translucent and the fennel is soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes and continue to cook for 1 minute more.
While the shallots and fennel cook, add the pasta to a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until very al dente, 2 to 3 minutes fewer than the package directions (it should still have a slight crunch in the centre).
Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.
Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and the saffron to the shallot-fennel mixture and stir until the butter is melted. Add the clams, tossing to combine, then add the marinated lemons and pour in the wine and ¼ cup [60 ml] of the reserved pasta cooking liquid.
Cover the skillet and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the clams open, 4 to 6 minutes. Using tongs, pick out the clams and transfer to a large bowl, discarding any clams that have not opened. Loosely cover with foil to keep warm.
Add the pasta and another 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid to the skillet and stir to coat. Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and continue to cook, stirring and adding more pasta cooking liquid as needed, until the sauce coats the pasta and the pasta is al dente, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, return the clams to the pot, add the lemon juice, and toss to combine.
Transfer the pasta to a platter, sprinkle with the fennel frond–bread crumbs, and serve with additional lemon wedges.
