Ostriche alla TarantinaTaranto-Style Baked Oysters

Mix the gratin crumbs and start preheating the oven

• 1 Set the oven to 240°C and start preheating.
• 2 Halve 1 garlic clove lengthways, remove its germ and mince very finely with a knife.
• 3 Pick the leaves from 10g flat-leaf parsley, dry completely with a cloth and finely chop.
• 4 Put 50g dried breadcrumbs, 12g grated pecorino and 1g fine salt in a bowl; add the chopped garlic and parsley and mix with your fingertips.
• 5 Drizzle in 25ml extra virgin olive oil in 3 additions, rubbing the crumbs between your fingertips each time to distribute the oil.

Prepare a salt bed on the tray and hold the oven at baking temperature

• 1 Divide 300g coarse salt into 12 small mounds on a baking tray to support the oyster shells.
• 2 Place the tray near the front of the worktop ready for the oysters.

Shuck the oysters and secure them on salt without losing their juices

• 1 Rinse 12 raw oysters under running water and scrub mud and deposits off their shells with a stiff brush.
• 2 Hold each oyster wrapped in a thick cloth, pressing it against the worktop with the flat shell uppermost and the cupped shell underneath.
• 3 Shuck the oyster: insert the tip of an oyster knife into the hinge gap at the pointed base and lever the blade to make an opening.
• 4 Lay the blade flat against the inside of the top shell and slide it along the inner wall to sever the adductor muscle in one pass; lift the top shell away horizontally.
• 5 Lift the flesh slightly with the knife tip, sever the lower adductor muscle, then return the oyster to the hollow of its shell.
• 6 Remove any fragments of chipped shell with the knife tip.
• 7 Set each opened oyster on the coarse salt, twisting its base gently into the salt until it sits level without spilling juice; open and arrange all 12 in the same way.

Top each oyster with 8g of crumbs and drizzle with oil

• 1 Grind a total of 0.5g black pepper over the flesh of the 12 oysters.
• 2 Lightly mound about 8g (just under 1 tablespoon) of the crumb mixture over each oyster to cover the flesh. Do not press or pack it down.
• 3 Divide any mixture left in the bowl evenly among the 12 oysters and use it all.
• 4 Drizzle 15ml extra virgin olive oil in a thin stream over the crumbs, about 1.25ml per oyster.

Cook the oyster centres thoroughly and brown the crumbs

• 1 Meanwhile(While the oysters bake) cut the lemon into 6 wedges and divide the reserved 80g coarse salt between 2 warmed heatproof serving plates.
• 2 Place the tray on the upper rack of the 240°C oven and bake for 6–8 minutes.
• 3 When the crumbs brown, cover loosely with foil to prevent burning.
• 4 Use a clean probe thermometer to measure the centre of the largest oyster; continue cooking until it has remained at 85–90°C for at least 90 seconds.
• 5 Remove the tray only after meeting this cooking requirement.

Serve hot on the warmed salt beds with lemon

• 1 Keeping the shells horizontal, arrange 6 baked oysters on the coarse salt on each warmed plate.
• 2 Add 3 lemon wedges to each plate and serve immediately.