Frutti di Mare

I went through a good decade long stint of only ordering Frutti di Mare at Italian restaurants. Frutti di Mare is basically a big mix of seafood pasta. A lot of places prepare this dish in a tomato sauce, but I prefer mine with a white wine, garlic, lemon sauce. After 3 months with the pasta press, I finally had to make my favorite.

For a delicious dinner for 4:

1 batch of fresh pasta dough (or store bought if you want to cheat)

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup dry white wine

1 lemon

parmesan cheese

fresh parsley for garnish

salt and pepper

Assorted seafood, use as much as you like and whatever you like. I used:

1 lb of clams

1 lb of mussels

1/2 lb of calamari tubes and tentacles

8 scallops

8 shrimp

To get started, prep your seafood. For the clams and mussels, make sure to scrub and de-beard well. If there are any open shells, tap them. If they don't close on their own then they're dead and need to be tossed out. Peel the shrimp and slice the calamari tubes. Place everything back in the fridge until you're ready to cook.

Michelle thought that we needed to update our fresh pasta pictures, so here's the play by play. Mix the ingredients in the stand mixer, and then hand knead the dough for a few minutes.

Let the dough rest for a few minutes and then start rolling out in the pasta press using the widest setting. Roll through, fold dough over, and repeat a few time until you have a thin sheet and uniform shape.

Continue to roll on speed 2 and reduce the setting size on each pass.

And roll...

By the time the dough is thin enough, it will probably be at least 3 feet long. Cut the sheets in half so that you have manageable sized noodles.

Switch out the pasta roller for the cutter and run the sheet through the cutter.

Flour and fluff the noodes as they come out so they don't stick.

Noodles! It takes a lot of work to make fresh pasta at home, but it's so worth it if you have the time.

Work quickly once the pasta is made so it does not dry out. Again, flour and fluff the noodles. Hopefully by now you have a pot of boiling water ready to go as well.

Add the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes to a large pan over medium heat.

Cook for a few minutes until fragrant, but make sure not to burn the garlic.

Add the white wine, clams and mussels.

Cover for about 5 minutes until they start to open up. Discard any that stay shut.

Next, add the rest of the seafood. Scallops, shrimp, and calamari only take a few minutes to cook.

After adding the rest of the seafood, toss the noodles into the boiling water. Fresh pasta only needs about 3 minutes at the most to cook. Once al dente, drain and add directly to the pan with the seafood.