Samphire and seafood pasta

The big question, after a trip to the markets, is "What do I do with this?" The most perishable of the things I bought yesterday was this samphire, so it had to feature in tonight's meal. And because it was freaking expensive it deserved a bit of TLC.

I googled. It turned up ideas from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and from Rick Stein. Now, both of these men know what they are doing in the kitchen, so I could have very easily picked one of those recipes and relaxed and let them take care of things. But you know, that really isn't my way. So I took Hugh's pasta and Rick's salad and combined them into an extremely speedy dish of my own.

Samphire & Seafood Pasta

Put the water on for the pasta and wash a big double handful of samphire. Slowly soften 2 fat cloves of garlic in butter in a large saute pan. Add prawns. When they begin to turn pink, add your fresh linguine to the pasta pot, then add the leftover crab ravioli filling (that you've taken out of the freezer and thawed) to the prawns and add the juice of half a lemon. A minute before the pasta is ready, add the samphire to the pasta pot. Cook for that last minute, drain and add to the prawn and crab with the juice of another half lemon and the finely grated zest of the lemon. Divide between 2 big bowls and enjoy. Needs some pepper but certainly no salt.

I was really happy with how this turned out. The samphire was crunchy and fresh and salty, the prawns plump, the crab sweet and the lemon the perfect counterpoint. Pasta with tuna, lemon zest, parsley and capers was the first dish I ever cooked for Paul and although the ingredients in tonight's meal were much posher, the bright flavours and comforting pasta were the same. Ah memories. I can't remember what we drank with that tuna pasta way back then, but I am sure tonight's Dr Loosen riesling was better.