Creamy Seafood Pasta
This sounds tasty but there is some prep work involved to get all the seafood ready. This can be tailored to suit your taste.
Ingredients
For the Seafood
- 1 cup shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
- 1 cup squid, cut into rings
- 1 cup mussel meat, grass removed, fresh preferred, frozen will work
- 1 cup crab meat, or imitation crab (crab sticks), chopped
- butter, or olive oil, as needed
- salt and pepper, as desired
For the Pasta
- 500 grams dry pasta, bite size or spaghetti, (1 lb)
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 handful fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- ½ onion, diced
- 1 leek, sliced
- ¾ cup whipping cream, and as needed
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
To Prepare the Seafood
- Shrimp can be fresh, frozen raw, or frozen cooked. For fresh shrimp, peel, devein, and remove the tails, heat a non stick pan with a tablespoon or two of butter or olive oil, when hot add the shrimp, stir them around and turn them, cook until pink, remove from the pan. For frozen raw, thaw them and saute them as you would fresh. For frozen cooked, thaw them and check for any shell still attached. Now the shrimp is ready.
- Squid will normally be fresh, pull off the head end, remove the skin, the clear bone (called a pen), and insides. you can turn them inside out to facilitate cleaning the inside. Slice the body into ½ inch rings. Cut the tentacles off past the beak, discard the head. Heat a non stick pan with a tablespoon or two of butter or olive oil, when hot add the shrimp, stir them around and turn them, cook for about 2-3 minutes, season with salt and pepper as desired. Remove from the pan. Now the squid is cooked.
- Mussels can be frozen cooked, or fresh raw. For frozen, simply thaw, check for and remove any beards. For fresh, clean the shells, remove visible beards outside of the shell, and discard any open or cracked shells, steam the mussels until the shells open, about 6-8 minutes, allow to cool to handle, discard any shells that did not open, remove the mussel meat from each shell, and again, check for and remove any beards. Now the mussels are read.
- Crab can be canned, frozen, or imitation. For canned crab meat, just drain and check for any shell fragments. For frozen, thaw and check for any shell fragments. For imitation, simply unwrap the crab sticks and slice at an angle, about ¼ inch slices. Now the crab is ready.
To Prepare the Pasta
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, then add the pasta and cook until just tender. Drain.
- While the water is heating, heat a large non stick pan on medium heat with 1-2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil, when hot, add the garlic, mushrooms, celery, onion, and leek.
- Saute until the onion and leak are tender, season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Lower the heat to low and pour in the whipping cream, feel free to add another tablespoon or two, and mix with well.
- The pasta should be done now, drain it well, then add the pasta to the pan and mix together.
- Add the seafood to the pan and toss with the pasta, simmer for just a minute or two to heat the seafood through.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I will price this after I source all the seafood. For now, I will say High cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Replace or reduce an item of seafood and add some poached whitefish or salmon. 2. Replace a seafood item with an equal amount of a favored item. 3. Reduce a seafood item and add cooked oyster meat.
