Harissa Mackerel Pasta

Smoky, spicy, sweet & really bloody gorgeous

I’m on a serious mackerel hype at the moment. I’m a lifelong lover of tuna pasta and I do believe in enjoying what you love (unless it’s taking heroin or murder) but I also think it’s important to make more informed choices when it comes to the environment. We’re all neighbours on this planet & all that.

Generally speaking, tuna (as well as salmon) is not a very sustainable choice (if you want to know why, just google it), and in the UK we have so many amazing, abundant, healthy and delicious options to choose from, one of which (and my current fave) is mackerel!

In this recipe I’m using smoked mackerel - you can pick this up from most supermarkets, in vac-packed containers. Smoky, meaty, full of protein with a decent shelf life AND they come up at £2-3 per two fillets! Incredible value, too!

The rich, oily flesh (along with the smoke element if you opt for smoked) stand up really well to other strong flavours, so we’re using harissa here to make things a little bit spicy and interesting.

Ok let’s go for it!

FULL RECIPE (serves 2)

1 leek - finely sliced

1 head of fennel - finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic - finely sliced

2 large tomatoes - diced (or 1 tin of tomatoes)

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp harissa

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 fillets smoked mackerel

1 lemon - zested

250g fresh pappardelle - or any pasta of choice

Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

In a large frying pan, sweat the leeks and fresh fennel down until soft, with a pinch of salt, for 10-15 mins. Add in the garlic and fennel seeds and fry for a couple more minutes. Add in the tomato puree and harissa and combine for another minute or so. Add in the chopped fresh tomatoes (or tin, if using) and let that soften down for 5-10 mins.

Take your mackerel, peel off the skins and using your hands, flake off into the sauce. Zest in the whole lemon and mix.

Get your pasta into some boiling salted water and cook to packet instructions.

Spoon some pasta water into the mackerel sauce mixture to loosen then add the pasta, with more pasta water if needed. Give everything a really good mix together until well combined, then pile into bowls and finish with a drizzle of exrta virgin olive oil. Enjoy!