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Editor’s Note: Larna Wellman passed away this summer. We’re publishing this story in the present tense, a fitting point of view for those who knew her.
If it’s fish, mollusk, or crustacean, Larna Billings Wellman can turn it into a delicious, intimate dinner or a true Downeast feast for a crowd—except for the live bass her grandson, Justin, delivered fresh from Davis Pond in Eddington one spring morning.
“I can make a nice chowder with it,” she told him when the fish was offered. Problem was, the fish was still alive—sucking air through its gills and, she remembers, “staring straight at me with his beady little eye from the kitchen sink.” Expecting nature to take its course, Wellman went to take a shower. Returning, she found the fish still sucking air, still staring. “I figured I’d put water in the sink to keep it fresh, and give nature another hour to take effect.” Nature did. An hour later the fish was swimming laps around the sink.
That was it. She picked up the phone and called Justin. “Come get this fish and release him back into the pond.”
“It just wasn’t his chowder day,” she explains. “Mine either. From then on, I just couldn’t cut and clean another live fish.”
This is a powerful statement from the daughter of Stonington fisherman Dick Billings, the man who later became the owner and operator of Billings Marine. Fortunately, Wellman still has no problem cooking them—turning fish and any local seafood into delicious fare.
It helps to have friends and family nearby keeping her in fresh seafood. In addition to a home on Davis Pond, where she and her husband live in a row of extended family four homes deep, Wellman has a place on Burnt Cove in Stonington—the same picturesque cove where her mother, daughter, grandchildren, and great grandson live. “With my appetite for seafood,” she says, “it also helps that my daughter, Lisa, is married to a lobster fisherman who works right from the cove.”
Her husband, Charles Wellman, can attest to his lady’s love for the crustacean. The Eastport Health Center Administrator/CEO often tells the tale of their first date when they went to a Stonington lobster feed. “The woman sat down to eat and didn’t get up until she’d devoured seven lobsters,” he says. His longtime bride nods with no apologies.
Larna Wellman is most well-known, not for her consumption, but for the highly delicious cuisine that she shares with friends and family. Some of her more famous recipes are whole chicken cooked on the grill (“the secret is to cook it upright with a can of Heineken up its backside”), a killer roast beef (“it’s all in the spices you coat it with”), and a continual crop of new recipes, like tonight’s lobster and scallop pasta medley.
“The secret to this lobster and scallop pasta medley,” she says, “is preparation.” Her prep work started the day before, when she cooked and picked the meat from four fresh, soft-shelled lobsters. “If you get hard-shelled lobsters, you only need two to get the same amount of meat.” Though Wellman tends to get her seafood straight off the pier because of her Stonington connections, she says, “It’s easy enough to buy already picked meat and fresh sea scallops at any good fish market.”
As a self-confessed “Food Channel junkie,” it’s no surprise that she likes to have her ingredients measured, chopped, and lined up before she begins. “You need to have ingredients ready so you can make the sauce in a smooth process. If you have to stop along the way to chop the peppers or broccoli, you’re going to have problems.”
When asked what kind of problems, Wellman explains that the worst thing a cook can do to any seafood is overcook it. “It toughens the meat and spoils the texture, not to mention the flavor.” She also believes in tasting the sauce during preparation. “I cook to taste, not to measurements. The magic comes with the tasting and knowing what flavors develop with which herbs and spices.”
Wellman also makes sure to have all her cooking and serving dishes ready before she starts. “This pasta dish needs to be served as soon as the sauce is poured over the pasta,” she says draining the pasta. Beside the serving dish is a saucepan of warmed claw meat (left whole) and a sprig of fresh dill, which she’ll add to her serving dish for presentation. “Being organized makes the whole process more enjoyable.” It also means she can participate a bit in the social part of the evening, even when cooking.
“After all,” she says, “family and friends are still what make a meal outstanding. That and a good story.”
