Restaurateur Damiano Carrara revealed the simplicity required to enjoy delicious and authentic seafood pasta dishes at home.
The chef, originally from Lucca in Italy, made his This Morning debut on Tuesday, April 23. Starring on the ITV daytime show, Damiano Carrara may be a new face to British viewers, but he is well known across Italy.
He owns two patisseries in his hometown and is a judge on Bake Off Italia, so on This Morning he demonstrated his baking prowess by making a Tuscan classic “Torta Della Nonna”, which means Grandmother’s cake.
While Damiano whipped up a combination of sweet almond pastry, pine nut frangipane and custard on the TV show, it’s his top tips for pasta that people should also pay attention to.
In a conversation with Editor-in-Chief Maddalena Fossati on La Cucina Italiana USA’s Instagram Live series, Damiano revealed how to make seafood spaghetti and ravioli.
Spaghetti with clams
Ingredients:
Fresh parsley
Garlic
Chilli flakes
Olive oil
White wine
Clams
Pasta
Method
Speaking from his house in Tuscany, the chef said spaghetti with clams tastes wonderful when you chop fresh parsley, garlic and chilli flakes.
This trio of ingredients should be put into a pan with olive oil, white wine and clams. They should cook on a medium heat for six to seven minutes, then taken off the heat to remove the clam shells.
Add a splash of pasta water (as pasta should be cooking in another pot until al dente). “Water, air and oil make the clam sauce thick,” said chef Damiano. “You don’t need to add anything.”
Lobster ravioli
Ingredients:
Vegetable broth
Sautéed onions
Extra virgin olive oil
Parsley
Lobster
Damanio’s top three special ingredients for a lobster ravioli are vegetable broth, sautéed onions and extra virgin olive oil. Parsley is added to the bisque for colour and flavour.
When plating the pasta, place a butterflied lobster, gently cooked, on top of the bisque.
Spaghetti with jumbo shrimps, prawns or white fish
A similar bisque of vegetable broth, sautéed onions and extra virgin olive oil works well for this pasta dish. However, it differs from the lobster ravioli in that lemon juice is added to the bisque and parsley is replaced with cilantro.
Spaghetti with squid ink
The key in this type of pasta dish from scratch is to add water to the dough to make it more elastic. Home-made pasta without water “will be gooey” when you eat it and it “won’t taste right”.
Homemade pasta
There are numerous pasta makers available, from ProCook Pasta Maker for £35 to John Lewis Marcato Atlas 150 Wellness Roller Pasta Machine, £55.
Fellow chef Jamie Oliver shared his top tips for making great pasta:
- Salt the pasta water
- Measure your portions
- Use a large pan
- Cover the pan with a lid, only removing once boiling
- Add pasta only when water is boiling, not beforehand
