really good,especially with fish
The idea of tossing samphire with pasta to look like green and white paglia e fieno noodles comes from Richard Mabey's seminal Food For Free.
Add fish to make a meal of it, and provides the fishy balance to samphire.
Serves four.
500g fresh marsh samphire
Sea salt and ground black pepper
350g fettucine, spaghetti (or linguine)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
500g organic salmon or wild sea trout fillets
A good knob of butter
Juice of half a lemon
Pick over and wash the samphire as outlined in the previous recipe. Bring to the boil a large pan of water, salt it generously and drop in your pasta. Boil for eight to nine minutes, or whatever the packet recommends. Add the samphire to the pasta pan for the last two minutes of cooking time.
Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Season the fish fillets, add to the pan and fry until just cooked through: two to three minutes a side. Flake the cooked fish off its skin, removing any bones that you find as you do so.
Drain the spaghetti and samphire, then tip them back into the hot saucepan. Add a good knob of butter, a dash of olive oil and plenty of black pepper, and toss together. Transfer to warmed plates and scatter the flaked fish on top. Finish off each portion with a squeeze of lemon juice and a few additional twists of black pepper.