SERVES 2
When you cook mussels in a pot of sauce, just openin’ the lid takes you right to the marina. There was nothin’ like it, especially on a Sunday afternoon in the summer. Even now it takes us right back to Grandpa Dominick’s boat on the ocean. He was always cookin’ mussels into the sauce, but they were more for flavor than anything else. You’d maybe get a few over your macaroni, but they weren’t the main event. In the restaurant, though, that’s when you got a heaping plate of mussels, like thirty, thirty-five of ’em. Mussels were cheap, so it was one of the things you could make money on in the restaurant, but they were also so delicious. And nobody really made ’em at home, so it was something special you had when you ate out.
You could eat this dish either as a starter with just the sauce and mussels or serve it over the macaroni as more of a meal. We remember our cousin Tommy would eat the mussels like he was our grandfather eatin’ the pumpkin seeds (see here)—he’d pick all the mussels outta their shells first, put them back in the linguine, then eat the dish. It really burned Fran up; he’d sit there and seethe. The best part is sucking the mussel outta the shell with the sauce on it!
Salt
½ pound linguine
3 cups Seafood Fra Diavolo Sauce (here)
1 pound mussels (ideally PEI; they’re the best, cleanest ones), scrubbed and debearded
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside.
In a large saucepan, bring the sauce to a boil over high heat, add the mussels, and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the mussels open, discarding any that don’t open. Serve as an appetizer as-is or over macaroni.
SERVES 4
When we were talkin’ to our friend’s ninety-year-old aunt about our book, she told us about some of the dishes she used to make. This one sounded like a winner, and believe us, it is.
½ cup olive oil, plus more for the pasta
6 garlic cloves
5 cans anchovies, drained
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste, such as Contadina
Salt
1 pound linguine
¼ cup Secret Bread Crumbs (here)
3 tablespoons grated pecorino
In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until the garlic begins to brown, then add the anchovies. Cook until the anchovies have melted into the oil, then add the red pepper flakes and tomato paste. Fill the tomato paste cans with water and add to the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and cook the linguine according to the package directions until al dente. Drain and add to the pan with the sauce. Top with the bread crumbs and pecorino and serve.
SERVES 8 TO 10
If it was a Sunday, especially during Lent, Grandpa Dominick would be makin’ this. Except he didn’t call it anything fussy like “Red Sauce–Stewed Calamari,” it was just “Hey, I made calamade.” He’d cook the calamari nice and slow, which is the opposite of how most people cook it. They’ll tell you that you shouldn’t overcook calamari because it gets tough. But if you take it beyond that, like really cook it for a long time, it gives up. It gets real tender, like butter. Then he’d add the mussels right at the end to give it extra flavor.
3 pounds calamari, bodies and legs (ask your fishmonger to clean ’em)
1¾ cups olive oil
½ cup chopped garlic
¼ cup red pepper flakes
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems chopped
4 chowder or quahog clams
32 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 cups white wine, preferably Chardonnay
3¾ cups clam juice
4 quarts canned peeled tomatoes, preferably Tuttorosso or Redpack
¼ cup salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
20 fresh basil leaves
Separate the calamari legs and bodies into separate bowls. Slice the bodies into 1-inch rings and set aside.
Meanwhile, fill a small saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the calamari legs for about 2 minutes, strain, then drain and rinse. This is to remove any ink that might be in there. Set aside.
In a large saucepot, combine the olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, parsley, clams, and 8 of the mussels and cook over low heat until the garlic browns.
Add the white wine and cook for 3 minutes. Add the clam juice.
Add the smashed tomatoes, the calamari rings, salt, and black pepper and cook over low heat for 1 ½ hours.
When there’s about 10 minutes of cooking time left, add the remaining 24 mussels.
When done, remove from the heat and add the calamari legs. Finish the dish with torn basil leaves before serving.