Spaghetti con Cozze, Calamari, e Gamberi

Meganne arrived on Wednesday arrived afternoon so we spend much of the next two days on the beach and relaxing. I was six days into my holiday in Sicily and I hadn't even eaten any fish! On Thursday I planned to make spaghetti with clams but unfortunately all the clams were sold out. The friendly fishmonger told us it was no problem, she recommended that we make spaghetti with mussels, calamari and prawns. She was kind enough to cut and clean the calamari and prawns and she told us how to cook the mussels as well so we wouldn't have to clean them. Recipe follows:

If you're using mussels that don't happen to be already cleaned follow the fishmonger's advice and put them in a hot pan without any water, oil, wine or anything. They'll open up after a few minutes then you can pull the little nugget of meat out.

For two:
10 - 12 oz of spaghetti
Prawns, Calamari, Mussels or an combo of what looks good
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 whole cloves of garlic
1/2 glass of white wine
Cherry tomatoes - halved
chopped flat-leaf parsley

Bring a large pot of water on to boil. Salt the water just before you add the pasta.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke, add the cloves of garlic but make sure not to burn them, tilt the handle of the pan forward so they fry in the oil. Once you can smell the garlic add the cherry tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Saute the tomatoes, if you want them to give up the ghost and become part of the sauce, cook them longer. If you want them to retain their integrity saute them for less time or add them at the end. Pour in the white wine, toss in the mussels, crank up the heat and cover the pan. The mussels, if raw, should cook in about 6-8 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood, keeping in mind that the prawns and calamari only take a few minutes to cook. Throw in a pinch of the chopped parsley. If the sauce looks a little tight, splash in a bit of the salted cooking water. When the pasta is about a minute from al dente add it to the saute pan and toss it for a minute. Turn off the heat and throw in another good pinch of parsley.