Sunday on Eastbourne Seafront
It was one of those freezing cold winter day’s last Sunday and we decided to go to beach in Eastbourne where I grew up. There was bright sun, blue sky but a fierce cold wind. My father always says that weather like that blows the cobwebs out of your head, it certainly did. My boys and I loved it and played in the sand and threw stones into the sea. Giancarlo forgot his scarf, wore a open-necked velvet designer jacket and generally behaved like an Italian! After two minutes he complained about catching a cold (even when I reminded him that was a virus and had to be transmitted from someone else with a cold and there was no one around). He then said he could get pneumonia and retired to the warmth of the car.
When we were reunited we couldn’t resist a family trip to the fish shop on the beach. They sell a wonderful array of local and not so local fish and seafood. The boys love to see the lobsters, still blue and wandering around their tank. They have no quarms about eating them and on our last visit we horrified my parents by bringing back live crabs to cook, all at the request of Giorgio. This time we went for ready cooked crab claws, smoked eel, roast smoked salmon, smoked herring (smoked in the smokehouse above the shop) and some marinated anchovies. Back at the house we made a selection of antipasti and some pasta with smoked eel. Here are the recipes:-
Tajarin (Pasta from Alba) with smoked eel
Makes enough for six small portions
2 smoked eel fillets, chopped into bite-size slices ours came frozen but defrosted quickly out of the fridge.
1 red onion
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh black pepper
Enough pasta for six
Fresh torn parsley to finish
1 284ml pot double cream, you may not need all this
Put some salted water onto boil for the pasta. We used some Tajarin thin egg pasta that I had leftover but any thin pasta would work such as spaghetti or linguine.
Chop the onion finely and fry in the olive oil in a frying pan until softened and the sweetness has developed. Meanwhite cook the pasta.
Add the eel to the pan with some salt and pepper and toss well until the eel is cooked. Next add the cream, enough to make a sauce for six, cook gently over the heat for a couple of minutes until the pasta is ready. Adjust the seasoning to taste and add the parsley. Next add the drained pasta to the saucepan, toss together well to make sure the pasta is coated in the sauce and eat straight away in warmed bowls.
Salted or Marinated Anchovies with Red Onion and Parsley
I small red onion
A couple of sprigs of parsley, roughly torn
Thoroughly, wash the salt off the fish under a tap and open them up, remove the spines, In the case of marinated anchovies, simply wash them under a tap to remove a little of the sharp vinegar taste (you may not need to do this, we didn’t on Sunday).
Dry them on kitchen paper on both sides and spread the fish out onto a serving platter.
Chop the red onion very finely and sprinkle over the fish.
Scatter over the parsley and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Serve with crusty bread for mopping up the juices.