Special Offer Fish 48p a Kilo!!!

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Last week Mrs Sensible and I were doing the weekly shop. We are very organised when it comes to shopping, I add all the necessary groceries for our well being, for example biscuits, chocolates and beer and Mrs Sensible adds mundane things like toilet rolls, food and at the same time removes some of the items I have added.

As we walked down the aisle (I tried to hide some biscuits under the toilet rolls) Mrs S asked me if I preferred meat or fish for dinner. Obviously I suggested meat, fish never seems appealing to me as they lay on the counter staring at me with glassy eyes. We bought some meat to keep me happy and then we headed to the dreaded fish counter.

Mrs Sensible spotted some fish on special offer it was priced at 66 cents a kilo or in real money £0.48 a kilo !!!!!!  To me it looked like a fish head and some scraps, Mrs S said it will be perfect for our manky cats. I relaxed a little and went back in search of more useful things like wine.

For the cats

For the cats

On Fridays Mrs Sensible and I both finish work at midday, I phoned Mrs S and asked her if I could prepare a quick lunch for us…..

Mrs S: Sure make a quick sauce and use the fish that is in the fridge, make it the way you make a tuna pasta but use the fish.

Me: Fish? Which Fish?

Mrs S: We bought it yesterday.

Me: The fish we bought for the manky cats?

Mrs S: See how much fish is on the bone, there will be enough for a pasta dish.

Me: (less than enthusiastically) uhhuh

Me: Do I take it off the bone before it goes in the sauce?

Mrs S Pecora! you need to steam the fish and then take it off the bone, look I am on the way home just chop some onions.

Me: Ok, chop onions, I can do that 🙂

I can chop onions

I can chop onions

So I chopped the onions and put the fish in the steamer. There is a knack to frying onions, the heat has to be just right or the onions go crispy and burn. If you check the photo you can see there are only a few black and crispy onions.

Only a few crispy ones 10%

Only a few crispy ones

Having managed 2 tasks I decided it was time to phone Mrs S and ask for further instructions.

Me: Hi honey, the garlic and onions are done the fish looks a nice white colour so I think it is ready, what next?

Hurburt the fish in the steamer

Huburt the fish in the steamer

Mrs S Fetch the radicchio from the fridge and chop it into little pieces, then quickly fry it with the onions.

Me: Radicchio?

Mrs S: (with only a noticeable sigh) it looks like red cabbage. Use a large one because I have invited Paula to lunch.

Me: You have invited Paula!!! I am cooking Fish Head Pasta and you invite friends!!!!

Mrs S: (slightly more noticeable sigh) PN I will be home soon….

It was at this point that I decided that Fish Head Pasta needed an additional ingredient. So I went off in search of a cork screw and a bottle of wine.

Red stuff chopped and wine within reach

Red stuff chopped and wine within reach

The wine relaxed me a little and I proceeded to chop the red cabbage radicchio and throw it in the pan. Just as I opened the lid of the steamer to check on Hubert the fish, Mrs S arrived and I was suddenly reduced from the rank of Head Chef all the way down to Minion.

I may be a minion, but I can cook fish head pasta

I may be a minion, but I can cook fish head pasta

Mrs S (all at the same time) de-boned the fish, boiled some pasta, added the fish to the onions (that I had cooked) and  found some plates to serve the meal on. meanwhile I set the table and drank another glass of wine.

capers

capers

Fish Head Pasta on a plate, what does it taste like? Delicious. We produced 3 meals for less than €2.50 The wine that I was slowly quaffing cost me €12.50 but it was worth every penny.

Fish Head Pasta

Fish Head Pasta

 

 

 

 

 

 

39 thoughts on “Special Offer Fish 48p a Kilo!!!”

  1. Che buona pasta! Who knew fish heads could produce such a scrumptious meal! Bravo to you on your knife skills in chopping by the way!
    PS: I hope you managed to enjoy those biscuits you had added to your cart!
    PPS: Italian food is so amazing because with so little, you can make so much!
    Buon appetito and pass me a fork!

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    • my favourite italian food is very simple pastas or Italian sausage. .

      Mrs S normally finds the biscuits I hide in the shopping trolley. Occasionally she will be suprised by one or two items I have managed to sneek in when she wasn’t looking. Its all good fun..

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      • Mmmm you reminded me of the great salumi in Italy!
        I’m glad food shopping is fun: ) I enjoy couple’s trips to the store since my honey usually chooses the naughty things like potato chips and I go along with him! Alone, my conscience would tell me I didn’t need them!
        Buona giornata and cheers from snowy NYC!

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  2. Pecora Nera, we must have been separated at birth! Whenever my husband and I go to a supermarket I buy what I think absolutely necessary for survival: biscuits ( with chocolate chips or ringo), bread , pizza, cakes , oh, and crisps! How can you survive without crisps!! While my husband is in charge with all the rest. That pasta must be really tasty, even if I think that onion and fish is not always a fortunate match. I’ve got to try. 🙂

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  3. Loved this fishy tale (head and tail). You remind me how easy it is to do more with less. I shall vow to give it a try. Wonder if the fish you got so cheaply is ‘saumonette’ in French? As for the cookies, I buy them (my husband only sets foot in a store when coerced) so as to enjoy a couple each day. He would never buy them but will demolish a whole package in two days….so I am forced to hide them. 😉

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  6. That was one thrifty meal! I’ve never seen bones and heads sold like that in France. Shame, because it seems like there’s a lot of potential going to waste.

    My boys always look hard done by when I announce it’s fish for supper too. My ex-h used to say “Can’t we have meat?” I used to say “What do you think fish is?”. We’d go round in circles for a bit before he went off in a huff. He always enjoyed the meal in the end. Some people are hard work. 🙂

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    • Hi Sarah.
      I prefer meat, however I love mixed seafood spaghetti, especially when Mrs S makes it hot and spicy.

      I refuse to eat tripe, Mrs S says I eat with my eyes….
      We were in a restaurant and I had a nuce juicy steak. Mrs S had what looked like a meat kebab on a skewer. I asked what it was she said lumaca, so I tried a bit.

      After tasting it I asked what lumaca was.. snail was the answer. .. barf

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      • With you on tripe. It smells disgusting. The French eat snails with lovely garlicy buttery sauce. Makes them quite palatable really. I draw the line at frogs’ legs though. My ex-h cooked me some once. The smell of them cooking had my stomach churning and made me very nearly vomit. He was most offended. 🙂

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  7. Great minds…..I’m getting ready to do a food post. Yes, a food post from this woman who generally only cooks in a microwave (read the directions on the box) except when she is in Italy but can make one heck of a Venetian torta.
    Anyway so glad this worked out for you and you had a lovely lunch. My late husband refused, really refused to eat fish. One time I sneaked in a tuna pasta recipe (it was really yummy by the way) and he couldn’t tell by looking that it wasn’t shredded chicken. He ate two servings and I started to laugh. He said “okay, what kind of fish did I just eat?” and once I did manage to get him to order fish and chips….come on, we were touring the Queen Mary when it was docked as a tourist attraction in Long Beach, CA. He actually enjoyed it. But given a choice he would chose canned spaghetti over much of anything else at anytime (double bleh!)
    Watch for my torta post coming soon.

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    • A torta post sounds great and how can anyone not like Fish and chips??? When I was young I lived on Heinz canned spaghetti bolognese (spag bog). Three years ago I gave canned spag bog away as Christmas gifts to my Italian friends.

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      • Here is the link to the torta post: https://mishaimelda.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/sbriciolona/
        And dear departed hubby did like fish and chips once he got past the fact that it was fish.
        We have Chef Boyardee (which is not the Italian spelling of his name) here. I was actually happy to discover that he was one of the immigrants to US in the first half of the last century and made his fortune with his canned spaghetti. I saw it on a PBS documentary on “The Italian Americans”. They even interviewed one of my favorite singers …one of the boys from Philly (American Bandstand) Dion di Mucci who in the 60’s led Dion and the Belmonts (maybe they were Jersey boys). Anyway he now sings really great blues under his full name….Italian spelling and all.
        And whenever I’m served fish with the head on I make sure I have a piece of lettuce or parsley to cover the eye. I can’t eat something while it’s watching me.

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  9. The name Fish head pasta does nothing to entice me but it looks tasty in the end! I often find this with fish though – I was a bit squeamish the first time I had to clean and prep some squid (last week) but they tasted ruddy gorgeous in a garlic and butter sauce so I will get over my qualms much more easily next time!! Keep cooking!!

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    • I doubt anyone would order Fish Head Pasta!!! But it was very tasty. I like squid, have you tried black squid spaghetti??? Mrs S uses the ink from the squid when she cooks it. It looks like liquorice or maybe tarmac and I don’t eat it, but Mrs S says it is wonderful.

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  10. I like fish and that is the only kind of meat that I will eat sometimes. But what in the world do you do with the head? Mash it up or cut it to pieces- eyes and all? I’m afraid I’d have to pass on that dish.

    You still have not told me how your cat is acting differently. Has she been spayed? Is she staying in the litter box a long time? Is she drinking a lot of water? Have you had her checked out by a competent veterinarian?

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    • Hi Yvonne,
      When the fish had been steamed Mrs S removed all the fish from the bone and from the area just inside the fish head, The eyes, bones and main part of the head was thrown away. the fish was then added to the onion and capers and given a quick fry.

      The cats are now 5 months old and we are going to take them to the vets to be spayed, although I wonder if we are now too late, Mishmash is a bit of a hussy and she may already be in the family way… Mishmash and the ginger cat drive me mad because they both know they are not allowed to go upstairs, but they disappear upstairs and hide, it can take 30 mins to find out where they are hiding. A vet checked them 3 months ago when we thought they had caught a cold

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      • I surely hope that Mishmash is not expecting a litter. If she is only a little bit pregnant and the kits are around 2-3 weeks in development, then If I were in your shoes I would have her spayed. I think the vet can x-ray her to see if she has kittens.

        It is a fact that a cat of 5 months of age will come into season (heat) and can easily get bred. My son’s cat, Kitkat got pregnant at around 5 months of age. I told him over and over to bring me the cat so that I could take her to “get Fixed.” He brought me the cat when she was very pregnant and, about 2 weeks from delivery. She was too pregnant to be safely spayed. She had 3 kittens. He kept two and found a good home for the other one.

        If your cat is already bred and can not be spayed you will need to watch her closely when she goes into labor. Sometimes, very young cats have difficult deliveries and need a c-section otherwise the babies will die and she will too since there will be rotting kittens inside her, that her uterus will not expel.

        I know this all sounds very tacky but, I don’t know another way to write about the situation. For me when the cat has kittens that are looking like kittens on x-ray I have never been one to go ahead and have the mother cat spayed. I can not bear the thought of killing kittens that are pretty much formed in the womb.

        Good luck and let me know what transpires with the kitties.

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  14. I LOVE fish, but looking at the package of that sad fish head, I would have been worried myself. Radicchio is also a bit strong for my palette, but the end result looks very tasty! It’s obvious Mrs. Sensible is endowed with the usual culinary magic of southern Italian women. P.S. I am also an expert at chopping onions.

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