Like many others, I too am obsessed with The White Lotus
A recipe for lorighittas ai crostacei (braided pasta with shellfish)
Hello lovely people - it is so fabulous to have you here on this fine Sunday. This instalment of pasta Sunday brings you a delightful shellfish pasta which can be made in haste and therefore absolutely stunnin’ for a weekend lunch. We’ll be exploring how to make lorighittas, a braided pasta from the Italian island of Sardinia. Plus, I’ll be telling you all about the wine I think sings in absolute harmony with this dish.
no. 19
Lorighittas ai crostacei
I started watching season 2 of The White Lotus last week after binging the first season the week before, and let me tell you - if there was ever a TV show to make me want to up and leave my life and just move to Italy, this is it. I want endless Italian summers. I want to look out to the sea while I eat my breakfast at a fancy resort. I want seafood pasta on repeat. Obviously I could do without the show’s drama and twists and turns in the real world, but for entertainment value I am here for it with this series. Who else is watching?
Of course it must be discussed that The White Lotus is set in Sicily, and these lorighittas? Well, they are from Sardinia, another Italian island. I could have made something typically Sicilian like pasta alla Norma to make the connection for this week’s newsletter, but all I could think about while watching the series unfold was a big plate of seafood pasta with those stunning braided hoops. And so here we are.
To make this dish you’ll only need a handful of ingredients; good quality olive oil, garlic, chilli, shellfish and fresh tomatoes. Chopped parsley is a perfect finishing touch. Lemon on the side? Be my guest!
The traditional recipe for lorighittas ai crostacei makes use of gamberi, scampi and astice: prawns, langoustines and lobster - however you can easily mix and match or substitute what’s available to you. The below recipe features a mix of king prawns and lobster, which makes for a pretty special dish indeed.
While the pasta itself is time consuming, the preparation and cooking of the sauce is not. It’s the perfect dynamic! And if you’re one to plan a Sunday lunch in advance, make the pasta beforehand and you’ll reap the rewards of a fast cook on the day. I love the act of shelling the prawns directly at the table, the discarded shells a reminder of what was very quickly devoured.
Serves 2
Ingredients
Pasta
200g durum wheat semolina flour (semolina rimacinata)
100ml warm water
Fine semolina for dusting
Shellfish sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 dried chilli or 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp hot chilli flakes, subject to your appetite for heat
250g king prawns, rinsed under cold water
Meat from 1 lobster tail, cut into bite sized pieces (you can also use prawn meat for a more cost effective option)
1/2 cup Vernaccia di Oristano*
400g small tomatoes, halved
Handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
*a Sardinian white wine. If you can’t find this, go for a dry white - I struggled to obtain the Sardinian variety here, and used a Tuscan Vernaccia variety instead. It is worth noting this is not related to the Sardinian variety. More details in the suggested pairing.
Method
Pasta
On a work surface, add the semolina flour and create a well in the centre. Slowly drizzle in the warm water whisk until you have a custard-like consistency.
Switch to a bench scraper and start to flip the flour from the outer edge over and onto the water mix, using a cutting motion to then mix it in. Continue to do this around all sides until you have a crumbly, sand-like mix.
Start bringing the crumbly dough together with your hands, squeezing and coaxing it in a ball of dough that’s knead-able - scraping up and incorporating as much loose flour from your work surface as possible.
Once you have this shape, begin kneading the dough vigorously for a good 10 minutes until the dough is springy and elastic, and not sticking to your hands at all.
Cover and rest for at least 60 minutes.
Cut a small section from the dough ball and roll this out into a very thin rope.
Take one end of the rope and wrap it twice around three fingers, break the rope to connect it to the starting end.
Twist each side 2-3 times to form the braid, then set the lorighitta aside on a baking tray lined with fine semolina to dry slightly before using.
Continue this process with the rest of the dough.
The sauce and finishing touches
Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta.
Over a medium flame, heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan and add the sliced garlic and chilli.
Once sizzling and fragrant, add the prawns and lobster meat and gently cook until the prawn shells are blush.
Pour in the wine to deglaze and reduce, before adding the tomatoes.
While the tomatoes are simmering, cook the lorighittas in generously salted water for a few minutes or until al dente.
Scoop out with a slotted spoon or spider and drop directly into the shellfish sauce, along with a handful of chopped parsley.
Toss to marry and combine, serve on a platter family style with extra chopped parsley, lemon on the side and big bowls for all the shells!
Continue on for more and learn how to shape lorighittas with a step by step guide, suggested wine pairing to make this meal an event to be savoured and a playlist to make this a perfect Pasta Sunday - available to paid subscribers who help keep Pasta Sunday going - thank you ❤️
Lorighittas - what they are and how to shape them
A challenging shape to make, I watched countless videos before I managed to work the technique into muscle memory, but I think once it’s broken down it’s really quite simple - so get ready.
The first and most important thing is to make sure the dough is well rested. Why?
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