Excerpts

Pasta Pasta Tagliatelle with Nantucket Bay Scallops 73 Linguine with Clams, Pancetta, and Red Pepper Flakes 74 Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Sea Urchins and Crabmeat 77 Rigatoni with Tuna Bolognese 79 Spaghetti with Tuna Meatballs 80 Spaghetti with Lobster and Chiles 84 Tagliatelle with Shrimp and Peas 86 Fettuccine with Shrimp and Radicchio 87 Fettuccine with Rock Shrimp, Corn, and Jalapeo 88 Fettuccine with Rock Shrimp, Cherry Tomatoes, and Feta 90 Risotto with Lobster and Black Trumpet Mushrooms 92 Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Fresh Sardines and Walnuts 94 Bucatini with Ritas Spicy Baby Octopus Sauce 96 Chitarra with Tuna Bottarga and Bread Crumbs 97 Ricotta Gnocchi 98 Corkscrew Pasta with Scallops and Pesto 101 When most cooks and eaters think about seafood and pasta, they think about linguine with clam sauce. But at my house and at my restaurant, we combine pasta and seafood in really cool ways that go far beyond clam sauce. Some I learned on trips to Italy with friends and family. Others I learned from sitting around the table talking to colleagues, like my partners, Molto and Joe and Lidia Bastianich. And some combinations just come to me as a by-product of what pastas I have on hand and what seafood comes into the restaurant that day. If somebody calls me with some beautiful squid, I create a pasta special with squid and spicy tomato sauce. Nothing earthshatteringly original there, just commonsense cooking that people gravitate to naturally. In general, I have developed a few rules to cook by when it comes to combining pasta with fish and shellfish: The shape dictates the dish. Certain shapes go with certain kinds of sauces or ingredients. I know its a clich, but linguine does go with clams. But it also goes with bottarga, and that is not something you see often. Tagliatelle is a delicate Emilian pasta made with eggs and flour, and it goes beautifully with delicately flavored scallops or crabmeat or lobster. You wouldnt put rigatoni with garlic and oil. It just wouldnt work. Rigatoni needs something thats going to coat the pasta well and get inside of it. The general practice, or the one that was drummed into me by traditionally minded Italian cooks, is no cheese with fish. But I find that milder cheeses like ricotta, mozzarella, or mild feta can work very well in certain pasta preparations. I personally dont use Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano in seafood and pasta preparations, as I think they just overwhelm anything they touch. When people ask for grated cheese for their pasta at Esca, our servers offer toasted seasoned bread crumbs instead. After Ive cooked my pasta about 90 percent of the way through in boiling water, I invariably finish it in a saut pan with a little bit of the pasta water and the sauce. It adds a little coating, a little starch to the dish. The way you sauce a pasta is very important. Molto taught me sparseness in terms of saucing. He told me that you sauce a pasta the Excerpted from Young Man and the Sea: Recipes and Crispy Fish Tales from Esca by David Pasternack, Ed Levine All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.