The Flavor Democracy

I didn’t hit any guardrails on the culinary highway with this dish, but I did do a little lane weaving. I lightly seasoned and seared two halibut filets in butter and evoo. The cuts, still rare, were finished in a simmering homemade puttanesca sauce and set aside. Basically, the filets were poached in the puttanesca. This is a traditional preparation but I literally had to put a tangle in it…

The residual sauce was transferred from the 6 qt braiser to a 5.5 qt cocotte (French oven). I pan seared 1.5 dozen baby octopi, added them to the pot, and made sure they were completely covered. I placed the lid on the leggy critters and sauce and threw them into a 225° oven for 1.5(ish) hr. Broken chunks of the halibut filets were gently incorporated into the sauce and the process continued at 200° for another 30 min.

A note about the puttanesca sauce: fresh garden and cherry tomatoes, sliced red and yellow bell peppers, minced capers, minced green (not black) olives, sliced fresh green beans, caramelized sliced carrots, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh oregano and marjoram stems, diced young yellow onions, minced garlic, Alaea sea salt, and ground black pepper.

I chose a fresh [black pepper] spaghettini pasta from the Pasta Queen, Susan Korec, as my base. Perfect…

Acknowledgments:

http://www.thepastaqueen.com/

http://wildlittlefish.com/