Thursday, March 1, 2007

Spaghetti marinara

João loves seafood but I’d never made anything aside from pasta with shrimp
I felt a little reticent when he asked me for spaghetti marinara – I wondered if I could pull that off…
Luckily, I was able to find the seafood medley mentioned on the recipe, so it was a nice first time. Everything was clean, chopped and frozen – no traumatic contact with slimy stuff. :D

I made ¼ recipe and added king shrimp, seasoned with salt, pepper and lime juice and grilled with olive oil.

There was a thunder storm going on during our lunch, so I didn't have much light to photograph our food. :(

Spaghetti marinara
from Quick Food

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cans tomatoes, diced (395g each)
65g (¼ cup) tomato paste – I omitted
450g spaghetti
450g seafood medley – see note
8 mussels, beards removed, scrubbed – I omitted because there were mussels in the seafood medley I used
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil
salt
cracked black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute of until aromatic. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the sauce becomes rich and pulpy. Stir the sauce occasionally during cooking.
Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling water until al dente. Drain well, return to the saucepan and keep warm.
Add the seafood mix and the mussels to the tomato sauce, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the seafood is cooked and the mussels are open – I had to trust the cooking time specified on the recipe because I couldn’t taste the food.
Discard any mussels that don’t open.
Stir in the basil. Toss the sauce through the warm pasta and serve.

Serves 4-6

Note: Seafood medley – mixed seafood – is available in many supermarkets. Alternatively, make your own by buying different types of seafood, such as octopus, fish fillets, and squid, and chopping each into bite-sized pieces.

14 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

This looks like a good basic recipe. I'll bet it would be just fine without the seafood, too.

Peabody said...

Holy cow those shrimp look big.

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

Patricia, this looks really good. I love the briney taste of pasta, tomato sauce and seafood.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Patricia, this reminds me of home. I can't tell you how many times my mom made this dish. Yours looks fantastic!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Tiger shrimp? Those look fantastic.
Avoided the slimy did you? That's funny.

Sara - Piperita said...

Gosh, those are really big prawns!!!

Anonymous said...

This. Sounds. Heavenly.

The seafood medley reminds me of a wonderful dish we had recently in a Mexican restaurant here in Chicago that specializes in seafood--Las Islas Marias. It was a seafood stew that came to the table in a very hot stone cauldron, with the broth still bubbling and sizzling. Inside was a flavorful mixture of fish, shrimp, scallops and mussels, and crab legs dangled over the sides of the cauldron. Amazing!

wheresmymind said...

Oh man...those truly are KING shrimp!! I totally want some :D

Freya said...

Wow, I wish we had shrimp like that here! The pasta looks awesome too!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Lydia,
the sauce was very rich, my husband loved it!

Peabody, they were really big!

T.W., it was a hit with João. :)

Susan, how nice to know that, dear!

Sher, my husband ate them all - and there were others that were not included in the picture! :)

Tanna, we call them here pink shrimp, they are really huge.
My hands were pretty clean after I finished cooking. lol

Piperita, tks!!

Terry, I bet João would love this dish. Tks for sharing!

Jeff, my husband ate them all! :D

Freya, tks, dear!

Melting Wok said...

ooh..luv all seafoods with pasta, yummys :) So, no baking today ? still reminiscing on your dream in Paris ? hehe..:)

Kirsten said...

That looks delicious! I LOVE LOVE LOVE seafood and pasta.

Wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Did you say lunch? Wow! Your hubby is spoiled! That looks like a marvelous lunch!

Anonymous said...

Oh I can't resist this dish! First, it's marinara sauce(tomato-based sauce always been my fav) and OMG! look at that generous servings of shrimps jumbo. :D

Related Posts with Thumbnails