Culinary Explorer
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Cavatelli con Cozze e Fagioli
Created by Chef Graziella
Where the Adriatic meets the wheat fields of Puglia: briny mussels, creamy cannellini, and chewy cavatelli dressed in nothing but good olive oil and the juice the shellfish surrender.
This dish tells you everything about Puglia. The region has eight hundred kilometers of coastline and some of the finest wheat in Italy. The poor had mussels, which cost nothing because they grew on the rocks. They had beans, which they dried in summer and cooked all winter. They had durum wheat for pasta. They combined what they had, and what they created was this.
Mare e terra, the Italians call it. Sea and land on the same plate. In Puglia, this is not a concept invented by modern chefs. This is Tuesday dinner. The mussels give their briny liquor to the pot. The beans provide body and a kind of creaminess that makes you forget there is no cream. The cavatelli, those little rolled shells made from semolina and water, catch both.
There is no cheese. I will say this once, and you will remember it: cheese does not go on seafood pasta. This is not a suggestion. This is Italian cooking.
Ingredients
cavatelli
Quantity
1 pound
dried semolina pasta
fresh mussels
Quantity
2 pounds
scrubbed and debearded
dried cannellini beans
Quantity
1 cup
soaked overnight
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cavatellidried semolina pasta | 1 pound |
| fresh musselsscrubbed and debearded | 2 pounds |
| dried cannellini beanssoaked overnight | 1 cup |
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