Basquing in West Carbondale

Prologue
So it's January, and the snow was still at about eight inches deep last week, and those of us in West Carbondale have been watching Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow & Co. traipse around Spain, enjoying the warm breezes of the Mediterranean and eating good food.  At some point, Mario walks GP through the assembly of a modest spinach dish, using pine-nuts and currants, and I decide we need to have our own "stay-cation" Spanish dinner.

We started with Pan con Tomate, which is essentially bruschetta minus the basil and tomato chunks.  Drizzle or brush a good solid bread with olive oil, cook over a grill, rub a peeled garlic clove over both sides, and then smear a ripe tomato into one side and add a dusting of sea-salt.  I have to confess that, while making this, I felt a strong gravitational pull from bruschetta, and so a few leaves of basil and chunks of tomato may have ended up in the final product, but in general I tried to stick to the script.

We followed this with Catalan Spinach, which recipe is also found in the Batali/Paltrow cookbook which accompanies the show.  I doubt that anyone out there is as averse as I am to the notion of combining fruit and veg in the same dish, and one of the reasons I picked this was just to see if it could be done (and, more to the point, eaten).  I also picked it because it is brutally easy to make and has a prep-time of under five minutes.

Catalan Spinach
from Spain: A Culinary Road Trip (Batali & Paltrow)

• 2 T olive oil 
• 3 T pine nuts 
• 3 T currants 
• 1 large bunch spinach, washed and mostly dry 
• sea salt 
• fresh ground black pepper 

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. At nuts and currants and stir for a minute or two, until the nuts start to brown. Add the spinach, in batches if necessary, and stir and cook until the spinach is nicely wilted, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

For the entree, I wanted something with pasta and mussels, but I passed over Batali's Fideos and crossed over to Italy for this:

Linguine with Mussels

Epicurious

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 large garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 
• 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
• 1 cup dry white wine (we used a Sauvingon Blanc)
• 2 pounds cultivated mussels, scrubbed
• 1 pound thin linguine
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh herbs such as basil, dill, flat-leaf parsley, and oregano 

Heat oil and butter in a 5-to 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat until foam subsides. Cook garlic, fennel seeds, and red pepper flakes with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, stirring, until garlic is softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine and boil until reduced by half, 4 to 5 minutes. Add mussels and cook, covered, shaking pot occasionally, just until mussels open wide, 5 to 8 minutes. (Discard any that remain unopened after 8 minutes.) Remove from heat and keep warm.

Meanwhile, cook linguine in a pasta pot of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain linguine.

Toss linguine with mussels and any liquid from pot, cheese, and herbs (we used lots of basil, and about 1/4 c each of oregano and parsley). Thin with reserved cooking water if desired.

Epilogue

The combination of these three dishes on our table produced such swooning among the assembled adults as has not been seen since the first time I made Pho Beef.  Even Daughter, who eats Chicken Noodle Soup 24/7/365, ate a mussel and did not gag (although she pronounced herself unimpressed, and went back to happily munching the Pan con Tomate).  I would caution against omitting the fennel: I am so little fan of fennel I haven't cooked with it in 20 years, but it--along with the red pepper--adds warmth and depth to the sauce.  So enjoy, and by all means post back and let us know how many people at your table fainted in their plates!