Spaghetti with Shrimp and Bay Scallops

July 3, 2009

Same day as the Frame Poem,but just a bit later.

Here's the recipe as promised. In fact here are two recipes since you waited to read this while I had an exciting excursion to Home Depot...No, they don't make mailbox keys, Ladies of Screw Iowa!

Recipe # 1
Spaghetti with Shrimp and Bay Scallops


1 lb of De Cecco spaghetti (linguine for the second recipe)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 teaspoon of unsalted butter
2 minced garlic cloves
1 Tbs. of minced onion
½ teaspoon of saffron (if you can afford it!)
1 lb of peeled and deveined shrimp—may use the smaller ones, white or Key West pinks shrimp
½ lb of bay scallops
28 ounce can of any whole San Marzano peeled tomatoes—crush these yourself, or smash them as you will—of course you can use fresh, peeled tomatoes also, in which case, I doubt that you’ll find fresh San Marzano , so use Roma or any plum tomatoes
1 cup of fresh heavy or whipping cream
½ to 1 undernourished as in meager teaspoon of grated cheese (no more or you’ll kill the seafood taste)
hot pepper, if desired


In a large skillet over medium heat oil and butter and add garlic, hot pepper and onion. Before turning gold, add the juice of the tomatoes and then the hand crushed or tomatoes you’ve passed through a sieve. Yes, it’s the old fashioned way—do you want to do this well or not? Let the liquid cook down and then add the cream to thicken. Now for the tricky part—when you’re about to drain the pasta from the salted water, fling in the shrimp and scallops.

Pour some of this sauce into a warmed serving bowl, and then the drained pasta, more sauce and then the cheese.


AND Recipe # 2
Linguine with creamed shrimp: Crema di scampi.

Crema di scampi. Since you probably won’t find langostini or scampi—the ones that look like little lobsters—use a very sweet shrimp instead!

Here are the directions for this—you make it without the scallops and add more shrimp, say 1 ½ lbs. and grind them up and set aside.

In this case you will not crush the tomatoes but rather whip and whir them into liquid.

Also add ½ glass of wine to the cooked onion, garlic and hot pepper and when this cooks down, add the liquidy tomatoes.

Are you following me here, folks?

Let this simmer for about 20 minutes. If you add basil, take it out before you add the cream, and remove about ½ of this sauce to save it for something else.

Add the cream to thicken and then when the pasta is draining add the ground shrimp to the sauce and raise the flame to high—stir till completely drowned. Pour the tightly drained pasta (for this dish, I use linguine instead of spaghetti) into this mixture, and stir in the scanty teaspoon of grated cheese.

Serve from the pot. Garnish with minced parsley at the table.

P. S.
I have never made pasta this way—I will this weekend. I just thought it sounded like a good idea since Felipe told me this morning that shrimp with pasta is not one of his favorites when I mentioned that Lulu said the other day it’s not one of hers after suggesting it for our menu last Sunday!

So there you have it, chefs and chefesses, Necessity is once again a Mother of Invention.

Have faith, it'll turn out lip-smaking, delectably scrumtious. Ipso facto~