Seafood Marinara Pasta Recipe and Happy New Year!!

Wow, another 2 days more and we will be bidding farewell to 2011.  A new year is always a time of reflection and looking ahead and I'm sure all of you already have spectacular plans to usher in the new year.  For today, I am sharing one of my favourite pasta dishes, seafood marinara and it's really not that difficult to make the sauce from scratch instead of relying on store-bought sauces although those are perfectly fine too especially if time is of the essence.  I really wanted to add mussels to the dish today as well but unfortunately I could not find good ones where I usually shop at so I only used shrimp and squid.  I served the dish with some Lebanese bread brushed with some olive oil and sprinkled with salt and garlic powder as an easy accompaniment.

The year 2011 has gone by unbelievably quick but well I guess we say that every year!  I bet that most of you must be rushing around with the new year coming so I shall also keep today's post short.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all again, a Happy 2012 and may the new year bring in good news, joy and cheer for you and your family!  Also, I wish to thank all of you for your kind support of Smoky Wok and for leaving me your wonderful comments, feedback and I'm really glad I got to 'know' you through our mutual love for cooking and looking at good food.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

100g of spaghetti or other pasta of your choice (cook according to packet instructions in lightly salted water)

12 shrimp/ prawns, shelled but leave the tails on

4 small squids, sliced into rings

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 yellow onion, sliced or quartered

Handful of English parsley (thyme or rosemary will be suitable as well)

6 canned plum tomatoes

1 cup of canned tomato paste

4 tablespoons dry white wine

4 tablespoons ketchup (optional)

1-2 teaspoons sugar

Salt, to taste

1/4 cup water

Method:

Firstly, once the pasta is cooked till al-dente, drain and set aside.  You can add a drop or two of olive oil and toss the oil through the pasta to ensure the pasta do not get stuck to each other although this is usually not necessary.

If you are using the squid, remember to remove the tentacles from the sack by pulling it apart.  Clean the sack throughly and remove any gooey stuff inside and discard.  Remove the 'film' and also remove the skin of the squid.  Discard the eyes as well.  Slice into rings and then set aside.  

Now for the cooking of the sauce.  Firstly, add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil to your pan.  Make sure your pan is not too shallow.  Once hot, turn heat to medium and add in garlic and onions.  Fry till aromatic.  Add the white wine.

Immediately add in the tomato paste and canned tomatoes.  Bring heat up again and bring to a boil.  Season with salt, sugar and add ketchup if using.  Add the water.  Do a taste test and add more seasoning if necessary.  Bring to a boil.  Turn heat to low and allow to simmer covered for about 15 minutes.  Add in prawns and squid.  When adding in the prawns and squid, do not add in liquid that will be released from the prawns/ squids after sitting in a container for a bit.  

Add in the parsley or other herb of your choice.  Add the pasta from earlier and toss to mix well.

For the bread:

4 Lebanese flat breads

2 tablespoons olive oil for brushing

2 tablespoons garlic powder for sprinkling

1 teaspoon salt for sprinkling

Handful of parsley or other herb of your choice

Pre-heat oven to 150 C.  Brush the breads with the olive oil then sprinkle with the ingredients above.

Bake for about 5-10 minutes.  The longer you bake, the crispier the breads will get so this depends on your preference.  Remove from oven.  Allow to cool a little bit.  Slice and serve with pasta.

Share this post