It’s hard to believe we’re in the midst of November with the Summer after Summer weather we’ve been gifted this week in our neck of the woods – warm enough we had to pull the shorts back out for our gang! Coupled with the massive historical turning of the tide for our friends & family in the USA yesterday, it felt like a great time to cook up our simple Pasta Pescatore dish made with a our easy-peasy tomato sauce & a medley of seafood. We file this one under “fancy meals without the fuss”! Dad loved to make a version of this dish for celebrations & special holidays – an anniversary, Christmas Eve or to welcome a new year, for instance. You can check out all his wonderful seafood dishes HERE. Our recipe is a no hard shellfish version simply because we didn’t have any on-hand, but also because I’m not a big clams & mussels kinda gal. If it feels like a week you want to celebrate life & a lifting of what felt like a huge weight on the world, this is the dish! Serve it on a big platter family style & rejoice in this new beginning!
Seafood Symbolism & What Types to Use
It is believed fish symbolizes a plethora of good things – fertility, creativity, rebirth, good luck, transformation, health, abundance, serenity, intelligence, happiness, strength, and endurance and why so many cultures across the globe enjoy seafood to commemorate a new beginning.
In our Italian culture, the type of seafood used in recipes usually reflects what was freshest at the market and can change. In our family, it was usually a beautiful combo of shrimp, scallops, mussels, calamari (squid) & clams. For this recipe, we used what we typically have on-hand in the freezer & the kids love most – shrimp & scallops.
What Type of Pasta to Use with Seafood Sauce?
Italians usually make Pasta Pescatore with Linguine – a type of long, flat-shaped pasta similar to fettuccine but less thick in width. We’ve also made this dish with Spaghetti, so use whatever long pasta you have on-hand.
Pasta Pescatore – so simple, but such a beauty when plated. File under fancy without the fuss recipes!
About the Ingredients & Pasta Pescatore Recipe
While fresh always tastes best, given our need to reduce grocery trips, we used our stash of frozen, uncooked shrimp & scallops. If you’re a meal planner (not me!), pop the bag(s) of seafood in the fridge overnight for thawing, otherwise give yourself enough time to properly thaw under cold water before cooking. We used a combo of canned plum & fresh tomatoes. This recipe would taste amazing with both, either or. Fresh basil and/or Italian parsley taste wonderful on top, but if you don’t have any on-hand, dried versions of either work just fine. This Pasta Pescatore recipe made just enough for our family of 6, but if you think you’ll need more, double up the pasta & sauce recipe. Since shooting the photos for this recipe, we’ve also made it with unbreaded calamari rings, so add some of that too if you fancy. If you have seafood allergies or foodies in your fam that just don’t like fish, give our Easy-Peasy No Meat Sauce a try!
Simple Pescatore Pasta | La Cucina di Kerrs
Ingredients
- 500 g Linguine *or your family's favourite long pasta*
- 1 340 g bag of frozen scallops & shrimp *or 170 grams of each, separately*
- 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ medium yellow cooking onion sliced thin
- 1 can diced plum tomatoes
- 1 cup fresh tomato *any - cut in halves*
- 1 tbsp fresh or dried basil *if fresh basil, chop*
- Italian seasoning Approx. 1/2 - 1 tbsp
- garlic powder Approx. 1/2- 1 tbsp
- coarse salt & ground black pepper *to taste*
- Red Pepper Flakes *optional: to taste*
Instructions
- Thaw, drain & pat dry scallops & shrimp.
- In a sauce pan, heat oil on medium & add scallops + shrimp. Cook until shrimp turns pink (about 5 mins) then add garlic & onion and sauté until onion turns translucent. Begin heating water to cook pasta.
- Add diced + fresh tomatoes, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, basil & a few shakes each of salt + pepper. Stir ingredients well, reduce heat to low & let the sauce simmer approx. 10 minutes.
- Salt the boiling water like the sea, and cook the pasta according to package directions, drail & smother with the seafood sauce. Garnish with fresh basil (*optional - add a dash of red pepper flakes to spice it up!*). No freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano on this pasta dish - Italians don't put cheese on seafood pasta! [*I still do sometimes - who's gonna know ;)]Serve on a large platter family-style. Buon appetito! Tag us @house_of_kerrs on Instagram if you try!
Let us know what you think if you give this simple Pasta Pescatore a try & tag us on Instagram @House_of_Kerrs if you do! We love seeing fellow fams cookin’ it up in your Cucinas! If you’re in the mood for more seafood-inspired pasta recipes, we think you’ll love our Lemon Garlic Spinach + Shrimp Pasta!
Keep well, eat well,
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