The Italian culinary way ‘allo scoglio’ refers to a traditional seafood pasta dish, once used by skilful Italian fishermen. Scogli is the Italian word for rocks near the coast to which the mussels and other shellfish clung. In the old days, fishermen would simply throw these small boulders into the cooking pot with the mussels and other seafood stuck to them. The scogli clinked inside the pot, helping to detach the still-living ‘rock creatures’ before rocks were removed (yes) and pasta was added to the sauce.

The Maltese version is simply the word we expats or immigrants use for the island: The Rock. This pasta is a classic scoglio with a few small but subtle tricks, such as the anchovies and extras such as the capers, which are a nod to Maltese salsa.

Ingredients

2 large cloves of garlic

1 shallot

1 mild small chilli pepper

2 anchovies

1 tsp capers

200 g cherry tomatoes from the vine

1/2 glass white wine

1 tsp tomato purée

1 handful of fresh parsley

500g seafood, fresh if possible, otherwise in a mixed frozen pack with mussels, scallops, squid and prawns

250g pasta of your choice, ideally Linguine

Olive oil, fresh coarsely ground pepper

Prepare the ingredients:

Crush garlic cloves with a knife and chop very coarsely, finely chop shallot and parsley, coarsely chop the anchovies, deseed chilli pepper and chop very finely, halve the cherry tomatoes, quarter if necessary.

Get going:

Cook the pasta at the same time as preparing the sauce so that some pasta water is added to the sauce.

Prepare the sauce: Sauté the garlic with some olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat, add shallot, chilli, anchovies and finally the capers – one after the other, fry each briefly and allow flavour to develop.

Now add the seafood and allow to gain some colour, mix in the tomato purée and finish frying. Note: If using fresh seafood, sauté the prawns and calamari from the start together with the garlic.

Deglaze with white wine and leave to infuse, add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Halfway through, add the pasta and simmer for another 5 minutes. At the end, thicken with half a ladle of pasta water (which adds all needed salt at the same time).

Garnish with the parsley when serving

Buon Appetito or as we say over here on the Rock  l-ikla t tajba !