Saturday Night Sauce
So what to do with all the tasty tog that I took home from Capt. Mike's boat? Its a bit late in the season, which means cooler weather, which means its sauce time.
First thing's first - gotta prep the fish. Best to cut the fillets into healthy-sized chunks and defrost some shrimp as well. Doing this first and keeping it on the kitchen counter allows the fish to come up to room temp, so that it doesn't chill the sauce when it gets dropped in.
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Next the sauce making. For those that might wonder, there's really two kinds of sauce - marinara, made quick in a large frying pan - usually with fresh tomatoes, and Sunday sauce - which takes a few hours of low-burner cooking. It is Saturday night, but its Sunday sauce this time.
There's all kinds of way to do it, and all kinds of optional additions that can be made, but we're keeping it simple this time. Dice a medium sized onion and at least a dozen garlic cloves - I smash flat the garlics with my chef's knife and then chop them - so to release more of its goodness. You don't have to be shy with the garlic, going with even more garlic will not hurt, and in fact with the sweetness of the fish taken into account, the more garlic, the better. Here is where you can get a bit fancy, and mash a couple of anchovy fillets and chop a tablespoon of capers or even black olives, but not this time, for me. We really do like a lot of basil in our sauce, so at least a dozen leaves of that, coarse chopped is about right.
Since its just me and the wife - and I want to freeze up some of this for later consumption, I chose two 28oz cans of Red Pack crushed and one 28oz can of Tuttoroso crushed. I like the sweetness of the Red Pack, and the tartness of the Tuttorosso combined - it gets me where I want my sauce to be. No need for any sugar or slivered carrots to sweeten it, do it the way I recommend and it'll turn out perfecto. Trust me.
Now coat the bottom of the pot with decent olive oil (no need for expensive EVOO here), turn up the burner to max and fry the onions, garlic and basil until the onions start to go translucent - and then put in the tomatoes - right from the cans. Add 1.5 cans worth of hot water.
Lower the heat, (on my stove a 2 or 3 out of 10 on the knob). Stir, stir stir. In fact during this multi-hour cook, stir every two minutes or so, especially scrapping the bottom of the pot - as you DO NOT want the heavier components of the sauce to drop down and burn on the bottom of the pot.
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Let this simmer UNCOVERED for 1.5 hours, to cook the tomatoes and reduce the quantity, so to concentrate the flavor. At around an hour or so taste the sauce - its time to salt and black pepper it, to your taste. Don't overdo the salt - as the pasta water will be salted and the pasta will pick up that saltiness. Might be enough salt for your taste right there. If not, salt can always be added at the table. I do like a lot of black pepper in the sauce, so I add A LOT - and of course I keep a shaker of red pepper on the table, I do like its kick with a seafood sauce. Even though I suffer from the "Italian Curse" and will pay for the excessive red pepper in the morning, to me its worth it.
Anyway, at 1.5hrs check the constancy of the sauce, if too loose loose (watery) cook another 30 minutes and test again - mine was like that last night. Did I mention stirring every couple of minutes? Very important. At this point I like to add two flat cans of chopped clams, juice and all - Snowy is the brand I went with this time. At two hours or so the sauce should be about ready, and the taste should be there. If still a bit watery, add a half can of tomato paste to thicken it up. I like those little cans of it, but have recently gone to the Cento tomato paste in the metal squirt tube - on the advice of another really good Italian cook. Works for me.
Remember - the fish is gonna throw quite a bit of water, thus diluting that gorgeous sauce, so be guided accordingly with the paste. Put in a bit more of it than you think you need. At this point in goes the fish, turn up the heat to maybe "4" on the knob and bring the whole deal to a low simmer and then drop it back to a "2" on the knob - for 45 minutes. More stirring please - but delicately, as the blackfish has a propensity to break up in the sauce - which is fine, but we prefer chunks, not flakes.
About 30 minutes out I put the pasta water on the stove and bring that up to a boil. My Mom taught me "three times around" with the salt right out of the Diamond Crystal box, so that's what I do. This will add seasoning to the pasta and almost negate the need to add more salt in the plate. Because the pasta will take around 12 minutes or so, depending on the brand (Barilla takes longer, for example), you can wait until you're almost ready to serve before you put the pasta in the salted water.
For fish sauce I have a very definite pasta preference - Mafaldine is what I like - this goes back to my Sicilian grandmothers on BOTH sides, so that's what I've always used. Use whatever you like, but if you hunt down my choice, I think you will be impressed in the way it holds the sauce and just "seems right."
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Cook the pasta to al' dente constancy, and then drain it in your handy-dandy colander. Some like to finish the pasta in the sauce pot itself, but I never do that with Sunday sauce, only with a good frying pan marinara. And you need a wide, deep frying pan to do that, btw.
Put a healthy dollop of sauce in the bottom of the plate, put your pasta on top of that and then ladle in your sauce and fish. Taste at the table and adjust the salt level to your liking. Here's where I get into trouble with the red pepper, but I just can't help myself. I'm weak that way.
Let me tell you something - other than blue crab sauce, or MAYBE lobster sauce, there isn't any sauce on Earth that tastes better than blackfish and shrimp sauce. Its just - phenomenally delicious.
Pair it with a decent red wine - a good Chianti is traditional if you prefer a drier version, or a decent Cab if you like it a touch less dry, but either way you just cannot beat a plate of this awesomeness.
Enjoy!
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