July 18, 2013 Cockles in garlic cream sauce over pasta

July 18, 2013 Cockles in garlic cream sauce over pasta

Suzette and I discussed a number of things that we needed to buy at Costco.  She needed four brooms and we needed to replenish basic provisions such as toilet paper and Dewar’s Scotch. 

Suzette also mentioned that we had basil in the garden that was ready to make into pesto but we needed olive oil and pine nuts and that were out of gravad lax and needed to make more. 

So today after a meeting I went to Costo around 11:30 for shopping and lunch.  I first saw fresh New Zealand cockles so I bought a bag of them.  Remember that in July 16’s blog I mentioned that I wanted to try a light fish in a garlic cream sauce with the Mezzacorona 2011 Pinot Grigio (Costco $8.99?), so here was my chance to make a light garlic Bechamel sauce and try the wine with it.   I bought a 6 pack selection of three different macaroni shapes to make sure we had a good pasta.  The I remembered Suzette’s thought that she wanted to make pesto for Saturday’s meal with Debbie and Jeff, so I bought some olive oil and pine nuts for pesto, and a bottle of Dog Pond Sauvignon Blanc, also from New Zealand, that we had drunk it at Wayne and Elaine Chew’s party on Saturday evening and enjoyed ($14.99) because it would go well with fish and cockles, a red Languedoc, $7.99), a 2 1/2 pound salmon filet to make gravad lax and a few other things, like Delice cheese and pretzels.   After I iced the cockles and salmon, I ate a polish dog and then ran the stuff home and put the cockles into a large pot of water and ice.

 

We make a very standard dish with clams which is a white wine and butter and garlic sauce in which Suzette steams the clams to cook them and then we serve the cooked clams and sauce over boiled pasta.  This time though I wanted to turn the sauce into a Bechamel Sauce by adding a roux of flour and butter.   At 6:00 we began to cook by going to the garden to see what herbs and vegetables we could use in the dish.  We picked two kinds of chard and a handful of Chinese Kale to add to the sauce and oregano and basil and Suzette picked three scallions.

 

When we went back inside, I first removed the skins from six cloves of garlic and chopped the white parts of the three scallions, so Suzette could start making her sauce to steam the clams.  I then de-stemmed and chopped and cleaned the 2 cups of chard and kale.  Then I de-stemmed 2 Tbsps. each of the oregano and basil and chopped it finely and added three tbsps. of the green part of the scallions, chopped finely and took that to the kitchen. 

When I arrived in the kitchen Suzette had steamed most of the cockles open (they need to be done in batches so each is submerged in the liquid of the sauce).  I took out a skillet and put in 3 Tbsps. of butter and melted it and then put the herbs in with another clove of garlic cut into thirds and cooked them for a minute.  Then I added three Tbsps. of flour and sautéed that for a couple of minutes to cook the flour.  Then Suzette began adding her clam cooking sauce from the steaming pot until we had a thickened Bechamel sauce.  Then we transferred the Bechamel sauce back to the clam pot in which the remaining clam steaming liquid was and added the chard and kale cook that.  Unfortunately, the cockles had made the sauce extremely salty, so Suzette decided to add a splash of cream to add creaminess and smoothness and suppress the saltiness of the sauce and I decided to add a dash of white pepper and Spanish paprika to give added dimension to the flavor of the sauce. After the sauce and vegetables cooked and thickened for a couple of minutes Suzette added back the shucked clams and I drained the Casarecce macaroni made in Italy by Garofalo from organic semolina wheat in a colander.   We poured glasses of Pinot Grigio and I shaved slices of pecorino Romano cheese to garnish the dish.  Then Suzette spooned macaroni into pasta bowls and we each ladled the clam and vegetable sauce over the pasta and garnished with cheese slices and went to the newly reconstructed gazebo in the back of the garden to eat.  Suzette brought home a dense loaf of sun dried tomato and herb infused bread that the new baker at the Bistro made and we dipped that into the sauce. Voila.

 

It is hard to describe the absence of taste that fresh ingredients produce.  Garlic and herbs produce a strong herbal presence but there is a lightness in the rest of the ingredients that almost seems like they are not present in the dish and yet they were.  This evanescence of flavor is unique to fresh ingredients and I like it very much.  The light Pinot Grigio did not clash with the lightness but enhanced it.  A lot of work for nothing but a delicious nothing and I am still burping garlic the morning after the meal.  This residual flavor of the ingredients reminds me of eating bouillabaisse on the Riviera, where we were simultaneously overwhelmed by the strong flavors of the herbs and the salty freshness of the fish.    
Bon Appétit