Orzo alla marinara (seafood and barley stew)

Gourmet~Traveller

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 6

Type: Seafood

Tools

Kitchen friendly view

Orzo alla marinara (seafood and barley stew)

By Stefano Manfredi, Bells at Killcare, Killcare Heig

Ingredients

1 kg mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1 kg vongole, washed well, soaked in water for 20 mins to purge, drained
80 ml (1/3 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
4 golden shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp chilli powder
250 ml dry white wine
500 ml (2 cups) tomato passata
3 banana chillies, deseeded and coarsely chopped
300 gm pearl barley, rinsed
300 gm podded peas (700gm unpodded)
2 leatherjackets, filleted, pin-boned and cut into bite-sized pieces
250 gm calamari, cleaned and cut into thin strips
200 gm peeled medium uncooked prawns
1 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preparation method

Serves 6

Prep time 40 mins, cook 35 mins

Heat 250ml water in a large saucepan over high heat, add mussels and vongole, cover with a lid and shake the pan occasionally until the shellfish open (3-5 minutes). Drain through a muslin-lined sieve and reserve shellfish and liquid separately. When shellfish are cool enough to handle, remove meat from shells and set aside. Discard shells.

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add shallot, garlic, fennel seeds, paprika and chilli powder and stir for 1 minute. Add wine, increase heat to high and boil until liquid evaporates (2-3 minutes). Add 750ml reserved cooking liquid, passata, chilli and 1 litre water. Bring to the boil, add barley and simmer until al dente (10-15 minutes). Add peas, simmer until just tender (8-10 minutes), then add fish, calamari and prawns and simmer until just cooked (4-5 minutes). Add shellfish and parsley, season to taste, stir well and serve hot.

Also in this section

Fisherman’s soup

Lemon pepper squid

Tuna mornay crepes

Crumbed squid with tartare sauce and salad

More inspiration

Traditional FocacciaI recently put the call out to my social media people, what they thought the most popular food of the nineties was and I received a resounding “Focaccia”. Of course! Who can forget the ol’ sun dried...

Hopetoun Tea Rooms' pavlovaFlavours of Melbourne is a locally sourced cookbook-come-city guide for all things food related in Victoria's capital. Bursting with almost 400 pages of photography from the streets, laneways...

Nine-year-old food critic grades her school lunchesA nine-year-old school girl in Scotland has become a blogging sensation after posting reviews of her school lunches on the internet.

Recipe finder