Rick Stein’s Cornwall episode 19: Cornwall has more than its fair share of folktales. Perhaps the most famous is found near Land’s End, where Rick recounts the tale of the Mermaid of Zennor.
A short distance away, Rick joins a small army of seaweed harvesters who are feeding an increasing appetite for a natural food more common in Japan. Further inland is a racetrack that is home to some of the best Cornish banger-and-stock car racing drivers. And high up on bleak Bodmin Moor, Rick meets a man who makes extraordinary knives from old vehicles.
In this new series Rick Stein reveals the Cornwall that he knows and loves: a unique part of the British isles with a strong sense of identity and a history rooted in its Celtic past. With his famous natural inquisitiveness, Rick shares the road less travelled – championing the food, history, music, art and culture of the county many locals argue should be a country in its own right.
Rick Stein’s Cornwall episode 19
Gurnard with parsley, garlic and sea and land spaghetti
This simple, aromatic pasta dish pairs gurnard with parsley, garlic, chilli, tomatoes and the seaweed known as sea spaghetti, which compliments regular spaghetti. I also make this with monkfish, sea bass and bream; it’s just a lovely way of cooking fish.
Method:
- Bring 3.5 litres/6 pints water to the boil in a large pan with 2 tablespoons of salt. Add the sea spaghetti and blanch for 30–60 seconds, then use a slotted spoon to lift it out into a colander and immediately refresh under cold running water. (If using dried sea spaghetti, cook for about 15 minutes until al dente before lifting it into the colander.)
- Add the spaghetti or linguine to the pan, bring back to the boil and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta well, combine with the sea spaghetti and tip into a large warmed serving bowl.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the strips of gurnard for about 3 minutes. Turn them over, fry for 1 minute more, then season with salt and pepper.
- Add the garlic and chilli to the frying pan and fry for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and fry for a further 30 seconds.
- Tip everything into the bowl with the pasta, scraping up all the little bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the frying pan. Add 3 tablespoons of the parsley and gently mix everything together so that the fish just begins to break up. Serve immediately, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with the remaining parsley.