Recipe: Pescatora
Italians love pasta and so do we! Pasta has become so popular that virtually every country is sure to have a pasta dish. The revolution resulted in specially built machinery for mass production of pasta and with proper drying techniques, pasta is now everywhere.
Seafood pasta, also known as pescatora, is a style of Italian cooking. The word ‘pescatore’ was derived from the Italian language which means fisherman. Pescatore is most commonly cooked with spaghetti. “Spaghetti alla Pescatora” literally means spaghetti in the tradition of the fisherman’s wife. This is done by preparing a traditional marinara sauce with seafood such as shellfish and squid.
Perhaps with the word ‘seafood’, it may seem a little daunting. But no worries, seafood is really easy to cook and you’ll be able to create your own seafood dishes at home too! All you need is fresh seafood from the market!
Spaghetti alla Pescatora
Servings: 4 pax
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 20 clams, cleaned
- 20 mussels, de-bearded and cleaned
- 40 small rings of calamari, cleaned
- 16 tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 60 ml of extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic
- 5 g of Italian parsley leaves, divided
- A dash of sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 240 ml of Pinot Grigio wine (or any wine)
- 480 ml of tomato sauce
- 1 box of dried spaghetti
Directions:
- Wash all the seafood until clean and set aside for later use.
- Bring to boil a large pot of water, and add salt and olive oil. Cook the pasta as per packaging or till al dente.
- While the pasta is still cooking, heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add in the chopped garlic and sauté lightly till fragrant.
- Then, add in the clams, mussels and parsley and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. Add calamari, shrimp, sea salt and red bell pepper and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add in the wine and allow some of the liquid to evaporate. Lastly, add tomato sauce and the remainder of the parsley and stir well to create the marinara seafood sauce.
- Drain the cooked pasta and add to the pan with the sauce. Toss well until pasta is well coated and serve immediately.
