Sea Salad & Clam Linguine

Seaweed is more commonly used in Ireland than in the US so it’s easy to find dried seaweed and seaweed beauty products, made by both big-ish companies and mom & pop startups. I found this dried “sea salad” mix by Wild Irish Seaweeds Ltd at my favorite local specialty grocer, Lotts&Co. I also found a jar of clams in their own juice. Sounds like the makings for sea linguine if you ask me!

Re-hydrating the Sea Salad

The directions were to soak the dried seaweed in cool water for 10 minutes to re-hydrate it before using. The sea salad contains Dillisk, Sugar Kelp, and Nori in shades from purple to green with varying textures. I set a handful of Sea Salad aside in a bowl of water, boiled water for the pasta, and started sauteing garlic in butter.

After re-hydrating the seaweed, I sliced the pieces the width of cooked linguine and set them aside while I made the rest. It felt like a lot of seaweed for a pasta dish for two, but I wanted to push the envelop. My goal was to have the seaweed wrap around your fork alongside the pasta. With any luck the seaweed would just seem like another type of noodle.

Finishing touches

I didn’t use a recipe or write down what I did, but just combined ingredients, to taste, my favorite way to cook. The garlic sauteed in butter is always a great place to start for seafood pasta (and fresh lemon is a great way to finish).

I blended cashews, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt in a blender to make a vegan cream sauce. When the pasta was ready, I combined all the pieces together in a wok - pasta, seaweed, cream sauce, and clams. I didn’t need pasta water thanks to the clam juice.

Salt and pepper to taste, and voila sea vegetable and fruta de mar pasta. The seaweed was barely noticeable so my mission was accomplished, and I actually want to add more next time. I’ve always been a fan of sneaking vegetables into things, like zucchini in muffins or kale in meatballs, and seaweed is my new sneaky vegetable of choice.