One of our Favorites: Linguine with Monkfish and Thyme

 

We're sorry we left you without any new recipes last week, but with Bryan away for work that means ordering in and dining out for us. Now that we're back though, we'll share with you one of our favorite meals: Linguine with Monkfish and Thyme.

This is a recipe by Mario Batali which we came across a few months ago and has quickly become a frequent meal in our kitchen. It's a red sauce, with seafood and pasta, which are three of our favorite things. It's also a great summer dish because it's quick and easy and makes use of zucchini.

I love when they make fish!

We had never tried monkfish prior to making this pasta. It's actually a pretty great fish! It's difficult to overcook and remains flavorful and nicely textured regardless of how long it's in the sauce for. And it has a nice strong flavor that's not too fishy.

Making the Dish

1/2 lb linguine
3/4 lb monkfish
half red onion
1 zucchini
2 coves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups tomato sauce
bunch chopped fresh parsley

Start off by slicing up all your ingredients. You'll want red onions sliced thinly into thin strips, and the zucchini cut in half and then sliced into half moons. Also chop up a couple of cloves of garlic. Grab some fresh thyme and remove the leaves from the stem until you have about a tablespoon worth of it. Lastly, cut up the monkfish into cubes and season with salt and pepper.

In a non stick pan, start sautéing the onions in olive oil. After they've started to soften slightly, add in the garlic, zucchini, crushed red pepper, thyme, and the monkfish. You'll want to cook this until the monkfish becomes somewhat opaque.

Then, add in the white wine, let it boil down slightly, and then add in two cups of your tomato sauce. You can make this ahead of time or use it from the jar if you'd prefer. Just make sure it's a relatively plain tomato sauce as you want the flavor of the thyme and monkfish to shine through. Stir this together and let simmer while the pasta finishes. That's it - the sauce is done!

Cook up your pasta in salted water. We use linguine for this recipe but you could easily use tagliatelle or fettucini as well. When it's about a minute shy of the package cooking directions, remove it from the water with tongs and add it directly to the pan with the sauce.

Throw some fresh chopped parsley on top and toss everything together over high heat, so the pasta can absorb the flavor of the sauce. If the sauce is too tight, you can add some of the pasta cooking water to loosen it up.

Serve it in a nice big serving bowl and enjoy!

The Result
As we mentioned, this is one of our favorite dishes now. The sauce is bright and flavorful and almost a little earthy thanks to the thyme, and the monkfish is great. It holds its shape well in the sauce and has a nice flavor that goes well with the thyme. The zucchini breaks down in the sauce and gives added texture and flavor as well.

This is a must try - so we hope you like it, and if you make it or know of anything similar that we might like, let us know in the comments!

I hope there's leftovers...