Seafood Linguine
Linguine tossed with prawns, mussels and squid in a garlic, white wine and cherry tomato sauce with chilli and parsley.
Photograph credit: Black linguine by Shaislionfish · Pixabay Content License · Pixabay
Where This Goes Wrong
Add the squid and prawns last.
Discard any mussels that do not open.
Finish the pasta in the sauce with some of its water.
How to Make Seafood Linguine
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Boil the linguine in salted water for 2 minutes less than the pack says. Reserve a mug of the cooking water, then drain.
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Heat the oil in a large wide pan. Cook the garlic and chilli for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes until they burst.
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Pour in the wine and bubble for 1 minute. Add the mussels, cover and cook for 4 minutes until they open. Discard any that stay shut.
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Add the prawns and squid and cook for 2 minutes until opaque. Add the salt.
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Toss in the pasta with a splash of the cooking water for 1 minute. Scatter with parsley and serve with lemon.
What's Going On Here
Why does seafood pasta so often taste of rubber? Because the fish is cooked for too long. Prawns need 2 minutes, squid needs 2 minutes, and mussels open in 4. If the seafood goes in at the wrong moment, or sits in the pan while the pasta finishes, it toughens quickly.
Start the sauce while the linguine boils. Soften garlic and chilli in olive oil, add cherry tomatoes and cook until they burst and smell sweet, then pour in white wine and let it bubble for a minute. Mussels go in first, covered, so that they steam open in the wine and release their liquor into the sauce, which is the savoury heart of the dish.
Add the squid and prawns last, and take the pan off the heat as soon as they turn opaque. They cook through in the residual heat while you toss the pasta in. Discard any mussels that stay closed.
Drain the linguine 2 minutes early, and finish it in the sauce with a splash of pasta water, so it absorbs the flavours. Serve on warm plates with parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Cheese is not traditional with seafood.
Storage and Reheating
Best eaten at once. Seafood pasta does not reheat well.
Swaps and Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
- A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.
Good With
- Green salad
- Crusty bread
- Lemon wedges
- Dry white wine
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. The calories include 4 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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