Capturing the Sea in a Pasta Bowl

I find the combination of pasta and seafood so irresistible that I spend way more time than can possibly be good for me — or that I can justify as professionally enriching — gazing at screens showing creamy linguine with mussels and scallops, or spaghetti with shrimp in one tomatoey sauce or another. Just try the hashtag #seafoodpasta on Instagram, and you’ll know what I mean.

Beyond the images, though, what makes these dishes so compelling are the deep flavors generated by seafood as it cooks, creating a virtually instant stock that emulsifies with the pasta’s starches. The ability of these sauces to coat, and the layers of seaside aromas they generate, are what make me — and many thousands like me, I’ll say in my defense — salivate over a bowl of spaghetti alle vongole peering at me from a bright display.

In my cookbook, “Ottolenghi Simple,” which was published in the United States last week, I have made a conscious effort to create dishes that do everything I love to do with my food — it must be surprising and multilayered, yet comforting and simply good — while giving people the opportunity to easily fit cooking into their busy lives. You can cook for an occasion from it, but you can also cook occasionally, with far less commitment or effort.

Writing the book, I was surprised to discover how a set of flavors that I love and constantly cook with can be harnessed for totally different purposes and for varying degrees of effort or skill.

Take the classic combination of seafood, fennel and tomato.

My pearl couscous with shrimp, clams and tarragon is a reflection of my cheffy instincts. It involves making stock using the shrimp shells. It also calls for cooking the fennel, prawns and tomatoes separately and placing the last two on top of the pasta, like a Spanish paella, displaying them in their unadulterated glory.

It’s delicious and impressive — and likely to win you lots of Instagram likes — but there’s a certain commitment involved that makes it a special occasion kind of dish.

My shrimp Bolognese is quite the opposite. It does what pasta does so well, offering a quick solution with little fuss. It looks and sounds homemade, which makes it reassuringly accessible — but it also captures the allure that makes me so hopelessly infatuated with pasta and seafood.

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Total time: 1 1/2 hours

Yield: 4 servings

1 pound (about 400 grams) raw head-on, shell-on shrimp or tiger prawns (preferably 12 extra-jumbo shrimp or king-size prawns, but any size will work)

7 tablespoons (105 milliliters) olive oil

5 roughly chopped garlic cloves, plus 1 crushed garlic clove

Salt and black pepper

1 small fennel bulb, finely chopped (about 1 heaping cup)

3/4 pound (300 grams) cherry tomatoes

2 lemons, 1 finely shaved to get 5 strips of peel and squeezed to get 1 tablespoon juice, and the other cut into wedges for serving

5 tarragon sprigs (about 1/2 ounce or 10 grams)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2/3 cup (150 milliliters) Pernod (or a similar anise liqueur)

1 1/4 cups (300 milliliters) chicken or vegetable stock

2 teaspoons fennel seeds

1/4 teaspoon red-chile flakes

1 1/4 cups (200 grams) pearl (or giant) couscous

1/2 pound (250 grams) small clams (about 12), such as Dorset, littleneck or Manila, rinsed well

1. Twist the heads off the shrimp and place the heads in a medium bowl. Leaving the tails attached, peel off the shells, add them to the same bowl and set aside. Devein the shrimp, then add them to a medium bowl with 1 tablespoon oil, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon salt and plenty of pepper. Mix together and set shrimp aside to marinate for 30 minutes or so.

2. Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan, for which you have a lid, over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, the chopped fennel and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then, until browned. Transfer the fennel to a plate, wipe the pan clean and return to a high heat. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, tossing the pan every now and then until charred in places. Set the tomatoes aside. Leave the pan to cool for a couple of minutes, then wipe it clean and return to a medium heat.

3. Add 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) oil to the pan along with the lemon peel, tarragon and the 5 chopped garlic cloves. Slowly fry for 5 minutes until the garlic is golden and the tarragon becomes bright green and crisp. Remove half of the tarragon and set aside, to serve.

4. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the shrimp shells and heads and fry for 7 minutes, stirring every so often until crisp and pink, adjusting the heat as necessary so the garlic doesn’t begin to burn. Add the tomato paste and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and fry for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Carefully pour in the Pernod and let it bubble away for a minute (it may flame), then add the stock and 2 1/2 cups (600 milliliters) of water and simmer gently for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use a potato masher to crush the shrimp heads a few times as they cook to release as much flavor as possible.

6. Meanwhile, in a separate small pan over medium heat, add the fennel seeds and 2 tablespoons oil and cook until the seeds begin to pop. Set aside until ready to serve.

7. Strain the stock, discarding the shells, heads and aromatics, then return to the same pan. (You should have about 3 1/4 cup, or 775 milliliters, stock.) Add the lemon juice, chile flakes, cooked fennel, 3/4 of the charred tomatoes and plenty of pepper and cook at a bare simmer for 5 minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to split.

8. Stir in the couscous, bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to medium. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, until the couscous is cooked through but still retains a bite.

9. Add the clams, cover the pan and cook until they all open, 4 to 5 minutes. Top with the remaining charred tomatoes and set aside while you fry the shrimp.

10. While the clams cook, place a large, nonstick frying pan over a high heat. Once it’s very hot, add half the shrimp, so as not to overcrowd the pan. Fry for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until crisp and golden-brown on the outside and cooked inside, then repeat with the remaining shrimp.

11. Arrange the shrimp, along with the garlic and any oil, over the couscous in the pan, then drizzle the fennel seed oil over everything. Top with the fried tarragon and serve with the lemon wedges alongside.

Total time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

1/2 small fennel bulb, roughly chopped

1/2 small onion, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon red-chile flakes

1 1/3 pounds (600 grams) peeled, raw king prawns or extra-jumbo shrimp (or use the largest shrimp you can find)

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (90 milliliters) olive oil

1 lemon, finely shaved to get 5 strips of peel and squeezed to get 1 tablespoon juice

3 tarragon sprigs (about 5 grams), plus 1 tablespoon chopped leaves for serving

3 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 pound (120 grams) cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (90 milliliters) Pernod (or a similar anise liqueur)

2 cups (500 milliliters) chicken or vegetable stock

12 ounces (320 grams) dried tagliatelle pasta

1. Add the fennel, onion, garlic and chile flakes to the bowl of a food processor and pulse about 10 times, until more finely chopped. Add the shrimp and pulse another 10 times, until finely chopped. (Don’t process too much; you don’t want the shrimp to turn to a paste. Smaller shrimp will require less pulsing, though.)

2. Add 1/3 cup (70 milliliters) oil to a large sauté pan set over medium-high heat with the lemon peel and tarragon sprigs. Gently fry for 2 minutes, then add the shrimp and fennel mixture. Fry, stirring every now and then for about 10 minutes, or until the shrimp have released and then reabsorbed their liquid.

3. Add the tomato paste, tomatoes, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and a very generous amount of black pepper and fry for 4 minutes, stirring every now and then until the tomato paste becomes thick and sticky and begins to brown. Carefully pour in the Pernod and let it bubble away for 1 minute (it may flame).

4. Add the stock and 1 tablespoon lemon juice, turn the heat down to medium and simmer gently for 15 minutes, lowering the heat if it is bubbling too much. Discard the tarragon sprigs and lemon peel.

5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta per package instructions until al dente, then drain well and add to a large bowl. Pour over the sauce and toss together well. Transfer to a platter and drizzle over the remaining tablespoon (20 milliliters) oil. Finish with plenty of pepper and the chopped tarragon and serve.