Pasta con pesce spada - swordfish pasta

While food shopping Saturday morning, my Mom and I passed by the fish counter and spotted swordfish.

Us:   "Ooooh, swordfish!"

Her: "Have you had swordfish before?"

Me:  "Mmmm, yeah! You?"

Her: "Oh yes. It's good. Do you know how to cook it?"

Me:  "Never cooked it before. You?"

Her: "No, I had it at a restaurant."

Pause.

Us:  "OK, then, it's settled. Let's buy it."

And that was how a couple of 1" thick swordfish steaks made their way home with us.

Have I mentioned that there's something about my Mom that makes plan-everything-me loosen up and be a bit more spontaneous?

Next up? Consultation with seafood expert Papo (my husband's dad). No one, but no one, knows seafood like Papo. We had swordfish a number of different ways when we visited him last summer, and I wanted to find out how to recreate the swordfish pasta we had for lunch one day.

Papo (long distance phone call): "Pasta con pesce spada?  OK. Peeled, diced tomatoes and olive oil in a pan. A clove of garlic. Then add the cubed swordfish, but not for long. Ten minutes maximum. OK? Ten minutes. Don't go over ten minutes."

And that, my friends, is the recipe. I kid you not, Papo makes incredible dishes with 5 ingredients or less. The only trick is figuring out proportions, because he often doesn't specify!

The question of which pasta to use was answered by my husband: long. We had thick spaghetti in our pantry, so that's what we used.

We all agreed that our spontaneous joint-effort swordfish pasta turned out well.  We all had seconds, and there was only a small, one-person portion that remained for "leftover lunch" the next day.

I think swordfish is a great "starter fish" for folks who aren't keen on seafood: it has a very nice, non-fishy texture, and an equally nice, non-fishy taste. However, some swordfish may have higher levels of mercury, so some people choose to stay away from it. Also, as with many other fish and seafood, purchase yours from a reputable source - I don't know about you, but I don't want to serve anything that could make people sick, and I also don't want our enjoyment of seafood to cause any species to become extinct.

Our Spontaneous Joint-Effort Swordfish Pasta

Cook in a large pot of boiling, salted water:
  1 lb long pasta, like thick spaghetti

Meanwhile, heat in a 12" nonstick skillet over medium-high heat:

  ½ cup olive oil

Add all at once:

  1.5 lbs swordfish, cut into ½” cubes (I used 2 1" thick steaks)

Cook the swordfish without stirring, for a minute.  When the pieces start to become opaque, toss them with a spatula.  Cook for another minute or two, but no more.

Transfer the swordfish to a bowl, leaving the oil in the skillet.  Pour in:
  2 ½ cups tomatoes, peeled and diced (canned tomatoes work too)
  1 tsp crushed garlic

Lower the heat to medium, and let the sauce reduce and thicken a little bit, stirring occasionally.

Once the sauce has thickened, which will be about the time that your pasta is done cooking, add the swordfish and its juices back into the skillet.  Toss it around with the sauce, and let cook for another 3-5 minutes at most. 

Drain your pasta, reserving about ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water.

Add the pasta to the skillet and toss with the sauce, along with:
  1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley and/or mint*

If the sauce needs to be loosed up a bit, add:
  some or all of the reserved pasta cooking water 
    (or a few Tbsp olive oil, or a combination - you pick)

Season to taste with:
  salt and pepper

  red pepper flakes, if desired 
    (this was Mom's idea, and it was fabulous)

Serve immediately, without cheese ... you know not to serve seafood pasta with cheese, right?

This serves 6.

*Karen, thank you for sharing your fresh mint!!!