Recipe below: Calamarata with Swordfish, Eggplant, Mint, and Marcona Almonds
Yesterday we had a big rain that started out warm but finished cool. In the middle of the rain I drove to Montgomery Place Orchards, a farm stand in Red Hook (the upstate Red Hook). I was scared I’d see mainly piles of warty gourds, but no, not yet. Eggplants and tomatoes are still here. The light is changing, but we’re not finished yet. So I immediately got to work and cooked up a couple of Sicilian-style pastas.
Tomato with eggplant is a Southern Mediterranean coupling that’s one of my earliest food memories, with a sweet but slightly astringent vegetable aroma. It makes a brilliant pasta sauce, one that is surprisingly rich considering that it’s all vegetables. And you can add fish. I choose swordfish here. I’ve made essentially the same dish using fresh tuna, and also once with monkfish; both were good, but I keep coming back to swordfish, which I think of as the official fish of Sicily, especially the Messina area. If you leave out the swordfish and top the dish with shaved ricotta salata, you’ll have a version of pasta alla Norma, the classic dish from Catania. I included olives in my take, though they’re not traditional, and I also subbed basil for the mint, but you can use either, or both. I served the swordfish pasta one night and then made the Norma version the next with the leftover vegetables I still had. I just had to run out for ricotta salata, which is essential if you want to call it Norma.
This is a great little condiment. It mixes newborn fish called neonata with Calabrian chili. You’d think it would be obnoxiously intense, but it’s not. Its taste is more subtle and gentle than when I mix straight Calabrian chili with anchovies, for instance. I’ve fallen in love with this flavor and add little blobs of it to a number of my dishes. Here I used it in both the calamarata preparation and the Norma. It’s hardly a traditional addition to pasta alla Norma, but I used so little that the fish was undetectable. It just deepened the taste in a suave way. I bought my jar at Buon’Italia at Chelsea Market; you can also find it at Amazon and elsewhere.
Calamarata with Swordfish, Eggplant, Mint, and Marcona Almonds
1½ pounds thick-cut swordfish, skinned and cut into approximately 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil (I used Pianogrillo, a Sicilian brand I get mail-order from Gustiamo)
2 summer garlic cloves, thinly sliced
A big pinch of cinnamon
Calabrian chili to taste (Rose Marina, if you like the idea)
A splash of dry vermouth
3 large round summer tomatoes, skinned, cut into small chunks, and lightly drained (save the tomato water)
1 pound calamarata or another tube-shaped pasta such as rigatoni
3 or 4 medium-size Japanese eggplants, strip-peeled and cut into medium chunks
A handful of spearmint leaves, lightly chopped
A handful of Marcona almonds, roughly chopped
Put the swordfish in a bowl. Sprinkle on the sugar and a little salt, and give it a toss. Give it a drizzle of olive oil, and toss again.
Set up a pot of pasta cooking water, and bring it to a boil. Add salt.
While the water is coming to a boil, get out a large sauté pan, and set it over medium heat. Drizzle in some olive oil and add one of the garlic cloves, a big pinch of cinnamon, and Calabrian chili (plain or the neonata version) to taste. Sauté it for a minute to release its flavors. Add the splash of vermouth, and let it bubble for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes, and let them cook at a low boil for about 8 minutes, adding back some tomato water if it gets dry.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water.
Set up another sauté pan, and set it over medium heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and let the oil get hot. Add the eggplant, seasoning it with salt, plus a little more Calabrian chili if you like. Sauté until the eggplant is browned and tender, about 5 minutes. In the last minute of cooking, add the remaining garlic.
Add the swordfish to the tomato sauce, and let it heat through on low heat until it’s just tender, about 3 minutes or so. Add the eggplant to the swordfish-and-tomato mix, and warm it through.
When the pasta is al dente, drain it, saving a little of its cooking water. Pour the pasta into a large serving bowl. Add a drizzle of olive oil, and toss. Add the swordfish sauce, half the mint, and about half the almonds, and give it all a toss, adding some cooking water if needed. Check the seasoning. Garnish with the remaining almonds and mint. Serve hot or warm.
Erica De Mane 
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