Tuna Tagine with Fresh Capellini

I found this wonderful store here that stores mediterranean spices and preserves, like sumac and preserved lemons; I jumped at the bottle of preserved limes, simply for that wonderfully tart flavour that it brings to stews. Tuna season's also back, and since I'm presently obsessing over fresh pasta, I decided to bring all of it together with a tuna tagine served over fresh capellini. The capellini recipe can be found here, and use the finest white flour available, else the capellini wouldn't hold its form when thinned down.

This tagine is a simple enough dish, with a thick tomato base and light lemony tones brought in by the sumac and preserved limes. Also keep a little sumac aside for dusting. I've used tuna for the tagine, but any firm white fish can be used. However, if you're using a mild flavoured white fish, marinate it in the chermoula over-night. With tuna, as it is a strong flavoured fish, around 2 hours in the chermoula should suffice, as it would lightly complement the flavour of the tuna.

Ingredients

Fish and Chermoula

• 400 g fresh tuna filet, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 small bunch parsley, roughly chopped
• 3 stalks coriander, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tbsp water

Tagine

• 1 medium onion
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 
  

Pesto Rosso with Fettuccine

Pesto Rosso, or red pesto, is this wonderfully sweet and lightly acidic paste that's makes a great pasta sauce, or spread over warm toast. It gets its deep red colour from the sun-dried tomatoes. Traditionally its made by pounding everything together in a mortar and pestle, but its so much simpler to blitz it in food processor. The pestle method also creates grainer pesto, while I prefer mine to be smoother. For the sun-dried tomatoes, if you're short on time or patience, or are in a place like Bangalore where the sun hides lazes underneath a blanket of clouds, you can just dry tomatoes out in an oven. I dried them out on gas mark 3 for around 3-4 hours; a kilo of tomatoes makes around a cup of dried tomatoes. To serve with pasta, use 2 tbsp of the paste and mix it with a tablespoon of grated parmesan or grana padano, then thin it out with the  a cup full of the pasta cooking liquor. The recipe for fresh fettuccine can be found here. This recipe will make around a cup and half of pesto, and it keeps well in the fridge for around 2 weeks.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 6 almonds, chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp black olives
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp paprika

Method

1. Toast the chopped almonds on high heat, until they release their aroma. Keep shaking the pan to prevent the almonds from burning.
2. Add the chopped almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper to a grinder, and mince it until its evenly chopped.
3. Add half the olive oil and blitz to create a thick paste. Add the remaining olive oil for a thinner paste.
4. Store in the fridge in a dry air tight jar.
5. For a richer paste, mix in around 2 tbsp of parmesan or grana padano.

Capellini with Sea Bass

Strings of thin capellini are great with roasts, as they mop up the juices of the roasting vegetables and meat. These little shoestrings should be made with finely ground flour, as the high gluten content of flour helps hold it together. This dish is a simple salad of crusted sea-bass with roast tomatoes, over a bed of capellini. The capellini can just as simply be substituted with any thin pasta, like macaroni or farfale, as its purpose to simply soak up the flavour of the fish and the tomato. 

Ingredients

Capellini

• 2 cups fine white flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt

Roast

• 500g skinless sea bass cubes, preferably with bones
• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 3 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 small bunch coriander, chopped
• 4 small tomatoes, cubed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 lemon

Method

Capellini

1. Mix the flour, salt and eggs together to create a stiff dough. Add a little water it needed, and then wrap it in cling film and keep it aside for 30 minutes.
2. Cut into quarters, and gradually roll out one quarter on a pasta-machine, flouring at each roll to keep it from sticking. Thin it down to the 8th setting, just one off the thinnest setting.
3. Run through the capellini cutter and boil immediately in salted water. 
4. Boil for 10-12 seconds, and keep aside with a little oil to keep it from sticking.

Roast

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil, and add it to the breadcrumbs, chill flakes, garlic and coriander. Beat together create a thick paste.
2. Heat an oven to 240C/gas mark 8.
3. Clean the fish and salt it with a pinch. Keep aside for ten minutes.
4. Add the fish to a  roasting tin and pour on the bread-crumbs paste. Toss around to make sure that it coats the fish.
5. Toss in the tomatoes and roast in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.
6. Once cooked, flake the fish and remove the bones. 
7. Toss the capellini in the roasting pan and create a little bed. Add the tomatoes and flaked fish on top and juice a lemon before serving.