Wow wow wow! We have always wanted to make this dish and Jas was home on the day we made it!
We got up that morning and strapped on a backpack (ok, he did.. and yes I said strap on… hehhehheh…) and walked down to the fish monger, the vegetable market, and over to the Italian market collecting ingredients.
And of course, the wine to go with it; all the while accompanied by our delightful doggie. Unfortunately I didn’t start taking pictures until the ravioli dish, booooo I suck 😦
Holy Crap prep work, it literally took hours to prep all the meat and fish that went into this, we had bowls all over the freakin kitchen! Which, of course, translated to a touch of wine drinking….
We did have a large pan, but I think if we made this again we’ll have to do it with the pan on the grill so there is a constant and wide heat source. It turned out spectacular, but would have cooked a little more evenly over a broader heat source.
So we decided to leave out the pork products. When we do it again I wouldn’t do that, I can see now that it would balance out all the seafood. Also instead of the peeled shrimp the recipe called for I would also use head on, shell on shrimp- the other ones cooked a bit too fast in the paella and the shells would have sheltered them from that. Plus, of course, there would be added flavor from all the juicy tastiness in their little heads.
And even funnier if you make this for company, and the heads explode and freak them out while they’re trying to remove them. Hehhehheh…
We did use brown rice, par-boiled first for about 25 minutes. We found that the meat and shellfish add such intense flavor it doesn’t matter what kind of rice you use, so go healthy.
And the mussels really do steam and open when placed on top of the dish just like the book says, I didn’t think they would but no kidding, it actually happened. Ha!
This would be an awesome dish for company, provided all the prep work was done in advance; also reference exploding head comment from earlier and gage how funny your guests would actually find that… and if you ever want to invite them back.
The dish itself only took about 30 minutes to make and the process was very entertaining, searing and layering, especially putting the seafood on top and watching the mussels steam and open in front of you. Yes, I’m still in awe of that…
I think we walked down and got gelato this night too, or rather we walked down, found all the gelato places closed since it was still a touch chilly out at the time, so we stopped into our favorite Italian place for ice cream and Amaretto.
Ahhhhhh…. joy is Europe.
And the idea of the after dinner drink. Brilliant.
Peel & Cleaver 