Rock samphire, red peppers and anchovy with pasta

​While awaiting the short asparagus season, an unusual Irish vegetable caught my attention, rock samphire, from West Clare, and sold under the Thalli label in The Urban Co-op. I was a little nervous about using seaside vegetable for the first time and abandoned it in the back of the fridge for a week.  Then with a new recipe in mind I removed it from its chilly location looking as fresh as when I’d bought it.  Here’s the recipe I invented, tried out on critical family and friends –  and they approved.  You can use it as an early summer pasta dish or as a side dish with fish, and/or new potatoes.

How about serving it with organic poached salmon (i.e. cooked in a flavoured stock with lemon, fennel seeds, fresh lemon thyme, bay, black pepper corns and a little salt, NOT fished illegally!)
 
It’s a speedy recipe and serves 2-3 as a main dish with pasta or 4 as a side vegetable dish. 

Ingredients

• 1 red pepper, deseeded and cut up into 2 cm slices (same size as gometini pasta shapes
• 1 box of Thalli rock samphire – washed in plenty of fresh water, large pieces broken up
• I lemon
• 8 -10 anchovies chopped finely (I use anchovies preserved in salt and olive oil from a jar)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 225 grams of gomitini pasta shapes – these little hollow crescent shaped pieces are the size of half a teaspoon (the word ‘gometto’ is Italian for elbow, so gomitini are little elbows).

 
Method

1. Put on a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Add a generous spoon of salt to the boiling water and then add in gomitini to cook.  They will take around 7 minutes (check pack for instructions) 
2. Heat olive oil, fry red pepper pieces quickly, turning regularly until they’re sweet and cooked – Remove with slotted spoon from pan. 
3. Add a little more olive oil to frying pan and throw in the washed rock samphire. It’ll sizzle loudly as the water drops hit the hot oil, turn frequently and cook for about 3 minutes at high heat 
4. While pasta is cooking and samphire is spitting, mash chopped anchovies with juice of half a lemon. 
5. Add anchovy and lemon mix to pan, stir vigorously, add cooked red peppers and taste. 
6. Once cooked and still slightly ‘al dente’ (not squishy) strain gomitini and add to pan of samphire mix.  Maintain high heat, keep stirring and add a ladle full of pasta water to make it a little saucy.  Taste then add more lemon juice, plenty of fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of Achill Island sea salt. 
7. Serve is warmed large pasta bowls with a sprinkle of chopped parsley and a piece of lemon. 

Katie Verling