SEAFOOD RAGOUT BEST EVER

What a magnificent dish, I made this for Valentine’s Day for my husband who loves fish, it is outstanding, simple and full of gorgeous flavours, it’s a keeper on our list, we had watched a re-run Rick Stein French Odyssey cooking show from 2005 on the food network, love that channel, brought the cookbook and what a triumph of a recipe, a little tweaking to make it our own as all bossy cooks do and a winner winner fish dinner!

Prep time 20 minutes / Cooking time 8 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 4-6)

10 fresh cold water prawns peeled

500g fresh mussels 

250g fresh clams

8 scallops

1 large squid cleaned and sliced

30g 00 flour

1/2 tsp sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

(toss the squid in the flour with the salt and black pepper)

500ml chicken stock

150ml dry white wine

2 tbsp butter

Olive oil

2 large vine ripe tomatoes skinned, deseeded and finely chopped

1 lemon juiced

1 lemon cut into wedges

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 tbsp mix of tarragon, parsley and chives chopped

300g linguine or spaghetti (50g per person)

Warm crusty torn baguette (optional)

TIP…have all the ingredients prepped and ready to go before you start cooking, and have your serving bowls and table set.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer for the pasta.  The cooking time line is set at 8 minutes from when the pasta goes in.  Start to cook the pasta.

Pop the baguette in the oven 170 C for 6 minutes, serve torn in a bread basket.  Option, make this a garlic butter baguette!

Place the mussels and clams in a large pan with a lid, add half the butter, wine and half the garlic, bring to a rolling simmer and cook for 3 minutes, strain the mussels into a sieve, keeping all the cooking liquid.  Remove the meat from the shells and reserve to one side.

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a saucepan along with the remaining butter, sear the scallops 45 seconds each side, remove and reserve to one side, next cook the squid fast around one minute each side, remove from the pan and reserve to one side.

Add the mussel cooking liquid and chicken stock to the pan, reduce by half, next add the remaining garlic, tomatoes, lemon juice, herbs and prawns, when the prawns are two thirds cooked around 1-2 minutes add the reserved mussels, clams, scallops and squid, stir though for one minute, check for seasoning, turn off the heat.

Drain the pasta and divide equally between bowls, ladle over the seafood ragout and sauce, pop a lemon wedge on the side, maybe a little more fresh chopped parsley and enjoy.