Spaghetti ai Frutti di Mare

Pasta ai Frutti di Mare is not heavy red tomato gravy with some seafood thown in. It is a deliciously light broth made from white wine, herbs and seafood juice, simmered with fresh roma tomatoes and your favorite seafood. We like clams, large shrimp, squid and scallops. The clams are important, as they go in first and are simmered with white wine and garlick.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb spaghetti or linguine
• 600 g (1 1/3 lb) mussels and clams
• 300 g (2/3 lb) shrimp, shelled (tail intact) and deveined
• 300 g (2/3 lb) calamari, cut into thin rings
• 6 sea scallops, quartered
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Salt, pepper (and, being from New Orleans, we also put Créole Seasoning into everything)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

Preparation:

1. Boil water in a large pot.
2. Heat the clams and mussels in a pan without water until they open.
3. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Cook garlic until it sizzles. Add red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute. Be careful not to burn the garlick.
Add wine and clams. Cover tightly, raise heat to medium-high and cook 5 minutes. The mussels are being steamed in the fragrant mix of wine and garlick, and the aroma will be similar to cooking steamed mussels Provençale.
4. Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente.
5. Uncover the sauté pan and simmer for a minute. Stir, add the chopped tomato or tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the seafood. Cook, stirring, for 5-10 minutes.
6. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce. Add parsley and toss some more. Divide among 6 bowls and serve.
7. Pairs well with Orvieto.
8. YIELD: Serves 6.

At Luigi's in Bangkok, they do a nice twist. They put the cooked pasta and the almost-finished sauce in a bowl, cover it with a thin sheet of pizza dough and bake it! Being sealed, all the fragrant juices of the tomatoes, wine and seafood are kept inside and make this an exceptinally flavorful presentation.