Tagliatelle mare e monti

Profil#

In Italian cuisine, mare e monti describes sea (seafood) and mountains (mushrooms). This perhaps strange combination tastes sensationally good and can be enhanced by truffles. However, the mushrooms used here should not simply be button mushrooms, but rather a mixture of wild mushrooms known in Italy as Misto Funghi. In the recipe here I use oyster mushrooms together with another type of mushroom whose name I don’t know. If anyone knows, please send me a short message.
The ingredients here are for 7 people, please don’t be surprised at the quantity. You can easily adjust them.

Ingredients#

• 8 smaller squid (calamari)
• 16 black tiger prawns
• 8 unshelled Venus clams
• 2 oyster mushrooms and the ominous second type of mushroom (see picture), OR a jar of Misto Funghi
• A few cherry tomatoes to taste
• 1 onion
• 1 chilli pepper
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1/4 glass Noilly Prat or another Vermouth
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1 glass of fish stock 400ml
• 1 cup of cream or (better) Italian panna cucina
• olive oil
• tomato paste
• salt, pepper
• a little mild paprika if necessary

Let’s go#

Here are our squid, the Venus clams and the prawns

The prawns and clams only need to be washed and then patted dry. With the squid, we can simply pull out the tentacles, cut open the bonnets lengthways and clean both under running water. I usually score the bonnets crosswise on the outside with a sharp knife and then cut them into strips about 2cm wide. They then roll up when frying and get a nice pattern. But I was too lazy with the quantity today and just cut them into strips. With the tentacles, you have to be careful to cut around the ink glands.

I didn’t use all the mushrooms, just the ones on the right and the oyster mushrooms.

Alternatively, you can use an Italian mushroom mixture. Simply drain off the oil or stock.

Cut the onions and chilli into small pieces and thinly slice the garlic cloves. Roughly chop the mushrooms.

The cherry tomatoes are simply washed and halved.

Prepare the vermouth and the wine as everything is about to happen very quickly.

First, sauté the mushrooms in olive oil with a little salt and pepper to give them just a little colour.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add the fish. It will be ready in about 6 minutes and will also been removed of the pan.

Now add the onions, chilli and garlic. Make sure that the garlic is not fried too hot or it will become bitter.

When the onions are becoming translucent, add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.

Fry it briefly and then deglaze with the vermouth. You can now remove the sediment and reduce the vermouth by about half.

Add the white wine and reduce by half.

Now add the fish stock and flavour with salt and pepper. A pinch of mild paprika can be added if necessary. Leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.

This is the panna cucina that I forgot to take a photo of. It will be added now.

Nachdem die Sauce wieder köchelt kommen die Tomatenhälften, die Pilze und der Fisch dazu. Nur ca. 2 Minuten köcheln lassen.

So the dish is actually already ready, but…

I added a small black truffle to the finished dish using a special truffle slicer. It rounds off the balance between mushrooms and seafood.