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Home Cook, Seafood Pasta Primavera

post #1 of 5
4/24/10 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
The challenge, cook a fabulous Seafood Pasta Primavera for my daughter's birthday next week.

History, my daughter loves shrimp and seafood, every other year for the past 10 years I have made some kind of seafood pasta primavera. (The other years I do some kind of shrimp feast).  I have made versions with tomato base sauce, or cream base sauce.  Now I'm going to ask for suggestions from my food friends here to help me cook a great seafood pasta primavera for my sweetie.

One ingredient that can't be missed is LOTS of shrimp.

This dinner will be for 6 or 7.

Normally I use fresh shrimp, clams, scallops, a little crab, and a piece or two of fish, cooking the seafood sort of scampi style and, steaming the veggies ( broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, etc).  Cook pasta, make the sauce toss the noodles in the sauce, then toss half the seafood in the sauce and noodles, put into big serving dish, cover with remaining seafood and garnish, and our more sauce over top.

Ok CT people who can help with a great Seafood Pasta Primavera recipe and procedures to make it taste awesome?
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post #2 of 5
4/24/10 at 11:08pm
I sweat the veggies in butter, very slowly. I try to buy whatever's in season from the farmer's market. I don't use a sauce, no cream, no tomato sauce. Just good fresh veggies and pasta. I may add a bit of the pasta water to the veggies if I feel the need. To make it a bit fancier I cut all the veggies in little cubes, about the size of green peas. Good knife skill practice for me. I like all the veggies you listed, I also like celery, green beans, runner beans... I've never tried primavera with seafood.

Since it's a special occasion, I also would make sure the pasta dish and the individual plates are hot.

I look forward to hearing other people's suggestions on this topic! Best of luck to you for your daughter's birthday!
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post #3 of 5
4/25/10 at 6:18am
If you can find them, try using head on shrimp. Season them, and saute instead of boiling. Then shell and behead the shrimp before adding them to the pasta. You'll get much more flavor that way. If you can't get them head on, no sweat. But do cook them in the shell.
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post #4 of 5
4/25/10 at 11:00am
    Hi deltadude,

  I'm not sure where you live although I could guess).  But Asian grocery stores are a great source for many items, including head-on shrimp.

    For a bit of the back story on Pasta Primavera, check out this link (from almostitalian.com).  

Quote:
   almostitalian.com

 Ingredients:

1 Oz. Dried porcini
1 Cup warm water
½ Lbs. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
¼ Lbs. green beans cut into 1-in. pieces
¾ Cup frozen baby peas, thawed
2 Cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
½ tsp. Crushed red pepper flakes
4 Tbs. Extra-virgin olive oil
1 Lbs. Spaghetti or Linguine
4 Tbs. Unsalted butter
2/3 Cup heavy cream
1 tsp. Finely grated fresh lemon zest
1 Cup freshly grated Parmigiano
¼ Cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ Cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/3 Cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
Additional Parmigiano

Preparation:

Soak the porcini in warm water in a small bowl for 30 minutes. Remove from the water, squeezing the excess liquid back into the bowl. Pour the soaking liquid through a sieve lined with a dampened paper towel into a small bowl and reserve. Rinse the porcini to remove any grit, then squeeze dry, and chop coarsely.

Cook the asparagus and beans in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Add the peas and cook until the beans and asparagus are just tender, about 1 – 2 minutes more. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl of ice and cold water to halt their cooking. Reserve the water in the pot for cooking the pasta. Drain the cooled vegetables in a colander.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Add the minced garlic, and the pepperoncino, and sauté for about 1 minute, until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the drained vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a bowl.

Return the water in the pot to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta in a colander. Add the butter, cream, lemon zest, and porcini to the now-empty, but still warm pasta pot and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in the cheese and add the pasta, tossing to coat and adding as much of reserved porcini soaking liquid as necessary (1/2 to 2/3 cup) to keep the pasta well coated. Add the green vegetables, parsley, basil, and pine nuts. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper as necessary, and toss to combine.

To Serve:

Divide the pasta among six warmed plates and garnish with Parmigiano shavings.

Serves six



  
     What I do is use whatever vegetables I have on hand, our what looks good and in season.  If I'm using green vegetables, I'll sometimes blanch and shock them in cold water.  sauté in a little bit of olive oil.  Once the vegetables are done, I'll add any wanted herbs and finish with more olive oil...season and serve.  For seafood I'll partially saute my seafood, then vegetables and deglaze with white wine.  Add the seafood, vegetables, pasta in the pan with a little pasta water (if needed) and finish cooking.  Add herbs, season, rest and serve.

     dan
Edited by gonefishin - 4/25/10 at 3:43pm
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post #5 of 5
4/25/10 at 2:48pm
Thread Starter 
Yo gonefishin,
Thanks for the recipe and the link.  That is what I'm looking for recipe and technique.  Thanks for the link, reading that article on the first pasta primavera was interesting.  The recipe in the link and yours is pretty much what I do, including the red pepper flakes.

I want to hear how the Pros would approach this dish and get their take or flair on preparing and serving.

Like the tip about the head on + shell.  Most the time the shell is on the shrimp I have access to but not the head.  What I do is shell the shrimp, brine it for 20 minutes, the shells goes in the pot with a little wine, and water to steam the clams & fish, the clams and fish are sitting on a bed of shrimp shells.  The resulting broth is what I make my cream sauce from, which cooks in the pan that I just sauteed the shrimp, crusted scallop, if I have crab in shell, and some squid, basically a butter garlic wine mixture, plus seasonings and a few other flavor bits.

So keep those tips coming please for this dish.
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