Fettucine Ala Seafood

Italian pasta with simple or complex sauces is universal fare now-a-days. The variety of pasta shapes is numerous also; everything from bow-ties, little hats, manicotti, gnocchi, and sea shells to linguini, spaghetti, fettuccine, and paparadelle noodles. You can't pick up a magazine without seeing a pasta recipe with a new twist, they simply are everywhere.

Even before the Romans, Italy grew the durum wheat for pasta. The Romans baked their pasta rather like lasagna. However, it was some time before Italians boiled pasta. Marco Polo is responsible for re-introducing pasta to Italy with Chinese noodles. The fact is Italians were already making pasta in Palermo when Marco Polo returned from China.

This quick and easy pasta sauce is ready in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta to al dente. The mix of seafood includes squid, crab, shrimp, mussels and steamer clams. Mixed seafood is available in most supermarket freezers or at your local fish monger. This sauce also works with chopped marlin, swordfish, halibut, or tuna. Get creative and add one of your favorite ingredients... perhaps capers, sweet peas, ramps, mushrooms, or cardoons.

Ingredients: - makes 4 servings
• 1 pound fettuccine noodles
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 pound mixed seafood
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 4 scallions, chopped tops and bulbs
• 1 Tbsp garlic, minced (about 4 cloves)
• 1 shallot, minced
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 cups cream
• 1 sprig tarragon, chopped or ½ tsp dried tarragon
• Pinch of marjoram or oregano
• Couple dashes of Tabasco sauce
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 1 Tbsp salt.
2. Cook pasta in boiling water until it is al dente.
3. Drain and hold.
4. In a skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter until it froths. Add the scallions, garlic, shallots, and seafood. Sauté until aromatic and the shrimp are pink, about 3 minutes. The seafood will be slightly undercooked at this point.
5. Add wine, stirring from the bottom of the skillet. Reduce wine to half, about 6 minutes.
6. Push seafood to the side of the skillet, add 2 Tbsp of butter and swirl gently. Slowly add cream, whisking gently so that the cream thickens.
7. Add tarragon, marjoram, salt and pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Stir seafood and sauce together to combine.
8. Plate the fettuccine, pour the sauce over, and garnish with the parsley.

Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Fettucine-Ala-Seafood&id=2313899