Seafood Minestrone
When it comes to using up leftover ingredients, chefs are not that different from the rest of us. Foie gras and truffle oil might not be in your refrigerator or pantry, but you may have lobster shells left from a celebration dinner, as Andrew Wilkinson did one day.
The chef-partner of Skipjack’s, Wilkinson picks through piles of lobsters to make seafood salads, lobster rolls, and creamy bisques, leaving behind bodies and legs. So along with staples such as white beans and ditalini, and basil pesto made fresh daily, Wilkinson created a pasta and white bean dish, something like pasta e fagioli, but with a seafood twist. His minestrone, as he calls it, has a rich, ocean-y essence from stock made with roasted lobster bodies. At home, use bottled clam broth.
His hearty bowls, dotted with shrimp and crabmeat, are popular. “If our waitstaff likes something, they recommend it — and this is a highly recommended dish,’’ says Wilkinson. One that repurposes something worth saving.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 each small zucchini and yellow squash, diced
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, thickly sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, with their juices
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or more
1 cup white wine
4 cups bottled clam broth
1 cup water, or more
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup dried ditalini
30 medium (about 3/4 pound) shrimp, peeled and cut in half
1 can (15 ounces) white cannellini beans, drained
6 ounces fresh crabmeat, picked over for shells
3 tablespoons basil pesto (for garnish)
1. In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for 6 minutes. Add the zucchini, squash, and leeks. Cook, stirring often, for 8 minutes more. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute.
2. Stir in the tomatoes, oregano, bay leaves, red pepper, wine, clam broth, 1 cup of water, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, lower the heat slightly, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the ditalini, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until almost tender. Drain into a colander but do not rinse.
4. Add the shrimp, beans, and pasta to the simmering broth. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the pasta and shrimp are cooked.
5. Stir in the crabmeat. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like, or a little water to thin the broth, if necessary. Ladle the soup into large bowls and garnish each with 1/2 tablespoon pesto.
Lisa Zwirn.
Adapted from Skipjack’s
None Available.