Seafood Pasta

If you missed it, I found out this year that despite my life-long seafood allergy, I can eat mollusks. Which means I can eat clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, calamari and octopus!!! I always felt like I was missing out on the seafood pasta dishes my family would order at Italian restaurants on vacation and now that I can eat some seafood, I've been ordering it like crazy and of course, I had to try and make it at home too. Most of the times I see this kind of dish on the menu at a restaurant, there's almost always shrimp in it - so that's pretty much the only thing missing from this dish as far as what's "typical." (Sadly, I can't have shrimp, crab or lobster.)

Cooking time is a little more than my usual recipes since you have to pay close attention to preparing the scallops separately - but it's so worth it to get that tasty sear. If you're going to roast your own tomatoes and garlic like I suggest, that takes time too. You could use jarred marinara sauce but I truly think fresh is best for this one. I'd say the whole thing start to finish can be done in around 45 minutes. Like the rest of my recipes, this will serve 2 people.

What you need:

• 4-6 fresh or frozen + thawed scallops
• 10-12 little neck clams, washed
• 10-12 mussels, washed
• 1/2 lb pasta, angel hair, linguine or tagliatelle (or fettuccini)

For the tomato sauce:

• 2 cups grape tomatoes for 6 roma tomatoes sliced in half
• 3 gloves garlic roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

For cooking the clams and mussels:

• 3 tbsp butter (I use EarthBound plant-based butter)
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp Calabrian chili paste
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

What to do:

• Combine the tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and salt/pep on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes at 350 F. You can add herbs if you would like more flavor but this will be your tomato sauce for the pasta dish - it tastes sooo much more fresh than using pre-jarred sauce this way and compliments the freshness of the seafood!
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil to cook the pasta in. (If you're using pasta that cooks in a few minutes, wait to cook it until the very end.)
• Put two skillets on the stove, one of them must have a lid that goes with it.
• The skillet with a lid is for the clams and mussels. Melt the 3 tbsp butter into it and add the minced garlic and Calabrian chili paste. Let that cook for a few minutes and then add the wine, clams and mussels. Cover until all the shells open up and the clams and mussels have been steamed - this usually takes about 10 minutes on med-high heat.)
• Next, cook the scallops. I pour grape seed oil into a skillet that's been resting on med-high heat. The skillet needs to be decently hot to sear the scallops better. Pat the scallops completely dry and hit them with a little salt and pepper. Place the scallops into the skillet and cook for 4 minutes without touching. Flip the scallops to the other side for about 2 minutes and then they are done! Once they are finished I like to move them to a plate to stop the cooking process and squeeze a little lemon juice on them.
• Once the clams and mussels are done, add them to the plate with the scallops.
• Add the blended tomato sauce to the leftover sauce that the calms and scallops cooked in and whisk together over medium heat.
• Add the cooked pasta into the sauce and combine. Taste test and adjust, sometimes I add a little more wine or butter here. You can add the seafood right to the pasta and serve or plate the pasta and then add the seafood on top! Serve hot.