I think that I started falling back in love with cooking when I hit 30. I was still going out most nights of the week, but there was a niggiing feeling of wanting to settle a bit, to make a home, to start making dinners instead of constantly eating out. This was one of my first ‘grown-up’ dinner party dishes. One night Ange decided to make this seafood pasta but could only find crab. The result, for some unknown reason, was not good and we ended up playing drinking games and taking bets on who could eat the biggest mouthful! After that we stuck to the lobster!
Ingredients – Serves 4
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 glass of white wine, about 150 ml (1/4 pint)
- 400 g (13 oz) cherry tomatoes or
- 1 x 400 g tin cherry tomatoes
- 250 g (8 oz) linguine
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 medium cooked lobster
- 225g (71/2 oz) raw peeled prawns
- 150 g (5 oz) raw scallops
- a bunch of fresh basil leaves, torn
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation method
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic for I-2. minutes until softened.
- Add the chilli and stir through and then pour in the white Wine.
- Bring to the boil and continue to boil until it has reduced by half Add the whole cherry tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes, then crush the tomatoes down with a potato masher.
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the linguine until al dente following the instructions on the packet.
- Add the sugar and the seafood and cook until the prawns have turned pink and the lobster and scallops are heated through (only a few minutes).
- Stir through most ofthe torn basil leaves, leaving some for the garnish, and season to taste.
- Drain the linguine, but leave a little of the pasta water in the saucepan to loosen the sauce with if necessary. Put the cooked linguine into the pan with the sauce and stir.
- Place in serving bowls and finish with extra basil and some freshly ground black pepper to serve.
