Arzak, Karl Marx and linguine
I admit the mantis shrimp might not be the most handsome animal crossing the Mediterranean sea (it's a cockroach more than a shrimp), but its taste, OMG its taste!
It is definitely not wise to write this post days after I cooked this pasta, and just in that dead time between the moment in which your stomach has sent you the first warning and the moment in which it is socially acceptable to eat lunch. And mind that this second characteristic time can vary from 11:45 in Frankfurt to 14:45 in Alicante. A very nerdy way to say I am starving and craving my sad-but-healthy lunchbox filled with raw carrots, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms, consequence of a weekend in which I indulged in the guilty pleasure of pork meat in all his possible shapes and consistencies.
Which reminds me that there will be a before and an after in this foodblog: this summer there is a reservation at my name at Arzak in San Sebastian. This Arzak.
Now, let me explain why someone like me, who believes in the happy degrowth, spends her nights alone watching documentaries about Anonymous and looks back to the good times when Karl Marx was alive and fighting with us, is going to waist half of an average monthly salary in a meal: well, I am a sinner (this always works for the chatolics)
I went to San Sebastian not long ago and given the amazing food I tasted, and given the obscene quantity of Michelin-starred restaurants, I decided it was a good place to have great food. Then, few months later, I was watching another documentary (Lord of Netflix pray for us) and I fell totally in love with this old happy guy who was escorting a famous Japanese chef in a pintxos tour of the San Sebastian bars, eating an insane amount of food and repeating that he loved food because he loved life. That cheerful old guy is named Juan Mari Arzak, owns one of the best restaurants of the planet (number 17, for the sake of precision), three Michelin starts, and I am going to meet him soon ;)
PASTA WITH MANTIS SHRIMPS AND PISTACHIOS
~4 mantis shrimps each
fish stock
a handful of pistachios
few tomatoes
garlic
linguine (80-100 gr each)
Peel and cut in cubes the tomatoes, place a couple of garlic cloves in a pan with two spoons of oil EVO until golden and then add the tomatoes. After few minutes, take the garlic out and add part of the fish stock. Boil the linguine until half-cooked, add them to the tomato sauce and start adding fish stock one spoon at time. In a hot pan, roast the shrimps for about 30 seconds and add to the pasta when almost ready (1 minute before turning off the fire). Decorate with crushed pistachio and enjoy.
