Spaghetti with Seafood, Capers and Tomatoes

Name: Spaghetti with Seafood, Capers and Cherry Tomatoes
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Spaghetti 250 g; Water for cooking the pasta 3 l; Salt for cooking the pasta 21 g (7 g per 1 l of water); Seafood 250 g; Water for cooking the seafood 1 l; Cherry tomatoes 4-6; Olive oil 3 tbsp; Garlic 1 clove; Capers 1 tbsp (10 g); Lemon 0.5 tsp juice, the rest to taste; Salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste

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30 mins

It is a curious thing: although Italy is surrounded by sea on almost all sides, Italians eat less and less fish and seafood as you go from the north of the peninsula to the south.

There are regions where people hardly eat fish at all. The people of southern Italy and Sicily were historically farmers and did little fishing. But in the north of Italy, fish and seafood are eaten everywhere, just like seafood pasta.

For example, cacciucco, a seafood soup that resembles a goulash made from whatever fresh, just-caught fish and seafood is at hand, is a traditional Tuscan soup. “Seafood” means everything caught in the sea except vertebrates, and, of course, as long as it is edible. Typical seafood includes mollusks, shrimp, crabs and other crustaceans, squid, octopus, spiny lobster and lobster. It is a perfect selection for a seafood salad.

The growing fashion for Mediterranean cooking, which many people regard as a diet or as purely Italian cuisine, is most likely just that: a fashion.

In fact, Italian cuisine means plenty of vegetables, fresh herbs, olive oil, all kinds of pasta and rice, seafood and meat, and so on. Italian pasta is a unique invention. By itself, pasta is just dough. Everyone knows spaghetti, the long thin strands that people around here stubbornly call “makaroni”. And the sauce is what gives pasta its flavor.

But you don’t always need a sauce. Spaghetti often makes a tasty warm salad. One such dish is spaghetti with seafood. It is simple to make: just toss the boiled spaghetti with boiled seafood, garnish with small tomatoes and drizzle with fragrant olive oil. Spaghetti with seafood is always delicious.

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Ingredients

2 servings

Spaghetti 250 g
Water for cooking the pasta 3 l
Salt for cooking the pasta 21 g (7 g per 1 l of water)
Seafood 250 g
Water for cooking the seafood 1 l
Cherry tomatoes 4-6
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Garlic 1 clove
Capers 1 tbsp (10 g)
Lemon 0.5 tsp juice, the rest to taste
Salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Pasta

As I always say: buy good Italian pasta, not a local compilation of flour and water. You are cooking for yourself, not for your enemies. Very thin spaghetti, capellini (Capellini), which means “hair”, is ideal for this dish. This pasta comes from northern Italy and is sometimes called “angel hair”.
Cook the spaghetti. Bring 3 l of water to a boil over high heat and salt it at 7 g of salt per liter of water (21 g). Cook the pasta strictly according to the time on the package. Capellini cooks very, very quickly, just 3-4 mins, and overcooking it is not acceptable. Drain the cooked spaghetti in a colander and let the water run off.

Seafood

Boil the seafood. Bring water to a boil in a separate pot and boil the seafood or a seafood mix: squid, octopus, mussels, scallops and so on. Frozen seafood does not need to be thawed. As soon as the water with the seafood comes to a boil, plenty of foam will rise.
Cook the seafood for 1.5-2 mins after the water returns to a boil, then drain it right away in a colander and rinse.

Dressing and assembly

Mix the spaghetti with the seafood.
Make the dressing. In a small cup or bowl, mix the olive oil and 0.5 tsp lemon juice. Add pepper and a little salt, then a small clove of garlic, or even half a clove, crushed or finely grated. Whisk the dressing with a fork; it emulsifies quite well.
Assemble the dish. Add 1 tbsp of capers (10 g) and the cherry tomatoes, cut in halves, to the spaghetti with seafood.
Toss the spaghetti with the seafood and drizzle with the olive oil dressing.