When it comes to dinner favorites, it’s hard to beat the widespread appeal of spaghetti. Spaghetti is at once comforting, savory, simple, and inherently fun! There’s something about it that brings people together and isn’t that what dinner is all about? Slowing the busy day down to gather with family and friends for some food and fellowship.
But in our need to put food on the table fast, the culinary potential of this noodle can quickly go limp when paired with nothing other than canned sauce and frozen meatballs.
If your family is growing weary of lackluster spaghetti, Blaine Garrett has just the recipe to blast your crew out of the pasta doldrums: spicy fish spaghetti.
In this Mercury Cook Your Catch video, Garrett, a veteran outdoorsman and camp cook extraordinaire, combines a few garden favorites, spices and your preferred white fish with whole-grain pasta to make a dish that’s spicy, flavorful and filling. And best of all, it’s a cinch to make.
SPICY FISH SPAGHETTI
Start to finish: 50 minutes
Servings: 4
12 ounces whole-grain spaghetti (about ¾ of a box)
8 ounces of your favorite white fish, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¾ teaspoon, salt
10 Kalamata olives, quartered
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
Pinch crushed red pepper
28 ounces whole peeled canned tomatoes
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 jalapeno, chopped
½ cup parsley, chopped
¾ cup water
Get started by putting a large pot of water on high heat.
In a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add the garlic, salt and crushed red pepper to taste. Stir with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes.
Add the tomatoes to the skillet, crushing them with a fork. Turn the heat down to medium low, add the water, jalapenos and oregano, and let simmer, stirring occasionally.
In your large pot of boiling water, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the desired consistency (al dente, soft, etc.)
While the spaghetti is boiling, add the whitefish and olives to the sauce. Stirring occasionally, simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the fish just starts to flake apart.
Once the spaghetti is cooked to your preference, drain the water. Next, toss the spaghetti with a few dashes of olive oil to keep it from sticking together, and set aside.
Serve by ladling a generous portion of the sauce over a bed of spaghetti and sprinkle some chopped parsley over the top.
Pair it with some garlic bread and a salad and you’ll have an Italian-fusion meal that will make your normal spaghetti recipe seem downright plain by comparison. For even more variation, try other types of fish, pasta varieties, spices and peppers. You may find that green chile tilapia with bowties or habanero grouper penne with siracha sauce is more to your liking. Whatever you decide, one thing’s for certain: spaghetti night will never be the same again!
