Seared Duck Breast with Blueberry Shells

My impromtu series featuring fresh fruit pastas winds down today with my initial inspiration - the blueberry pasta Ann featured on her blog, Chicken in Every Granny Cart.  The blueberry seemed like an excellent fruit for a pasta dish - for some reason the blueberry has a savory, fruity flavor but also a touch of tartness and acidity.  I was also intrigued not only by the history of blueberry pasta that Ann details,  but coincidentally a friend told me about a blueberry pasta he tried recently at an Italian restaurant in the East Village (I will ask him for the name and post in the comments...sorry!).  Despite what you see sometimes on this site, I enjoy creating dishes based on time tested ingredient combinations and techniques, so I felt reassured in experimenting with blueberry pasta.

As I've detailed in my previous fruit pasta posts, my objective was to keep the flavor of the fruit as the focus.  Ann made her blueberry pasta with red wine, but I just decided to puree the fresh blueberries to a smooth consistency, along with a stream of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  I strained the blueberry puree through a chinois to make sure all the little stems were removed. I made my pasta as I normally would (al dente in boiling, well salted water), but then combined the pasta with the the blueberry puree that was warming in pan.  Sorry, don't have a detailed amount of blueberry per serving, but I recall using just over a 1/2 pint of blueberries for 1/2 lb of pasta shells. 

For my tastes, a natural combination for the blueberry pasta was something with a gamey flavor.  A crispy skinned, rich duck breast was an excellent combination for the blueberry pasta. You could fold in some parmigino reggiano (which i did) and some herbs (mint? chive?) as garnish, with fine results.   I hope I've convinced you to give a fruit pasta a try this summer....let me know if you have!