A classic, easy seafood pasta made using a seafood marinara mix: prawns / shrimp, calamari, fish and mussels tossed through a simple, tasty tomato sauce. Made properly, the real proper Italian way, this Seafood Spaghetti Marinara is dinner on the table in 20 minutes!
Seafood Spaghetti Marinara
This recipe is dedicated to Bill and Pauline, the owners of a gorgeous young Golden Retriever called Lucy that Dozer plays with regularly at the beach.
When I say “dedicated”, I don’t mean any kind of heartfelt, deep and meaningful dedication. There is no sentiment behind this dedication.
It is just that I’ve now dictated this recipe to them three times while Dozer and Lucy were playing on the beach, and rather than continuing that weekly routine, I thought I’d just write the recipe out properly for them!!!
While a seafood pasta may sound fancy, in actual fact, this is super fast and easy to make. It really is dinner on the table in 20 minutes, if you can manage boiling the pasta while you make the (very easy) sauce.
I don’t want to show off, but it takes me 15 minutes. Should I do a video to prove it?? 😉
Mind you, I start with a pre-prepared seafood Marinara mix. Nowadays good seafood stores sell great quality marinara (the fish monger in Pittwater Place, for those in my area!), a good mix of small prawns/shrimp, pieces of fish, slices of calamari and shelled mussels. And it’s super great value too.
The key to the sauce for this pasta is searing the seafood first, then removing it before proceeding to make the pasta sauce. This way, the seafood is not overcooked, and also the sauce benefits from the residual flavour left in the pan after searing the seafood.
For the sauce – tomato passata
I like to make this sauce using tomato passata (pictured above) which is simply pureed plain tomatoes. It’s thicker and smooth, unlike canned crushed tomatoes, so it makes a lovely quick sauce. Nowadays, passata is sold in all major supermarkets here in Australia – in the pasta section – and it costs just a little more than canned tomatoes.
Toss the pasta!!
The other important step for this recipe is emulsifying. It sounds fancy, but all it requires is cooking the pasta in the sauce with some pasta cooking water for a minute or two right before serving.
This is a secret step mastered by all the Italian Nonna’s and proper restaurants around the world that makes all the difference. It’s magic because it thickens the sauce so it clings lusciously to every strand of pasta. Rather than a watery pool of sauce in the bottom of the bowl. 🙂
If you want to get technical, it’s because of the reaction that occurs between the starch in the pasta cooking water and the oil in the sauce. 🙂
I made this yesterday (Tuesday) and bumped into Pauline and Bill at the dog park just after I gave the homeless man a big steaming container of this pasta. The homeless man gave this a big thumbs up. Pauline and Bill politely declined my request for a family photo to include in this post. However, I know they’re certainly looking forward to getting their hands on this recipe – written out properly for them!!
– Nagi x
PS To bridge the communication gap: “Marinara” to most of the world other than Australia means a tomato pasta sauce. Not to be confused with “Marinara seafood mix” as sold in Australia, being a premix of different types of seafood in bite size pieces. So to Australians, “Spaghetti Marinara” means a seafood pasta, whereas in other countries, it means spaghetti in a tomato sauce.
In this particular recipe, it’s pasta with seafood in a tomato sauce….so I sort of captured both meanings!!!
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Seafood Spaghetti Marinara
Ingredients
- 6 oz / 180g dried spaghetti pasta (or other long pasta of choice)
- 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil , separated
- 10 oz / 300g seafood Marinara mix , or make your own (Note 1)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , finely chopped (~1/2 cup)
- 1/2 cup white wine (any) (Note 2)
- 2 cups tomato passata/tomato puree (Note 3) OR 600g/20oz canned crushed tomato + 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to packet directions, but reduce the cooking time by 1 minute (because the pasta will finish cooking in the sauce). RESERVE 1 mug of pasta water, then drain the pasta.
- Separate the seafood mix based on cook time. Longest cook time: fish and medium / large prawns, medium cook time: small prawns, shortest cook time: calamari.
- Heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add fish and large prawns first, cook for 30 seconds. Add small prawns, cook for 30 seconds. Add calamari, cook for 1 minute. Immediately transfer everything to a bowl.
- Reduce heat to medium high. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil, then add garlic and onion. Cook for 3 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add wine and bring to simmer, scraping the bottom of the skillet to mix the brown bits into the liquid. Simmer for 1 minute or until alcohol smell has evaporated.
- Add tomato passata, sugar, salt & pepper. Low heat to medium high, bring to simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Add pasta, seafood, around 1/2 cup of reserved pasta cooking water into the sauce. Toss gently and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and coats the pasta.
- Serve, garnished with fresh parsley. (See Note 4 re: parmesan cheese)
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer: Being dumped by a wave. Came out of it with his tail still wagging, and went straight back in for more. Currently trying to teach him to body-surf. It is not going well. 🙂
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This is exactly how I want a seafood marinara to taste! So often disappointed with restaurant versions. Not anymore. I’ll stay at home and make it myself. Thanks Nagi! X
it takes 20 minuets to prepare 40 minuets to filter through the crap talk before you get to the recipe. Do you think I googled pasta marinara to find out about Bills golden retriever?
How unbelievably rude! Imagine being being a grown adult (presumably) and acting like that on a website providing free content. I hope you weren’t making this for company – poor them for having to dine with you if so!
You can click on the recipe button at the top of the page to jump straight to the recipe, or you can throw a tantrum. Your choice.
Can you use frozen marinara seafood mix?
I made this today in Canada. Delicious. We used our homemade Passata made from our garden tomatoes last summer. We used a part of a bag of mixed seafood from Superstore ( $10CDN for 900 gms). Not the highest quality, but with lots of variety. Perfect. Even managed to impress my Italian lady.
Lovely meal can’t wait to share it!
I used prawn stock made from the heads and shells. It makes a brilliant bisque tasting pasta sauce.
Great recipe thank you. I threw in 500g of seafood mix. It’s delish! Can it be frozen?
I love trying out your recipes, they always turn out great. I have made this dish many times now, such a hit with the husband and guests.
Great Recipe Nagi. Have tried this many times.
Accidentally substituted red wine for the white. And added an extra half a jar of tomato paste and the sauce exploded to another level!!!
Fantastic recipe. We made up our own seafood mix which allowed cooking each component separately to get the cook times just right. Got fabulous reviews from the family. Highly recommend this one.
good day everyone, last night I tried to prepare a dish according to your recommendations. The whole family is delighted, friends are asking for the recipe. We enjoyed one dishes very much time. Thank you very much for the good advice! Because of this joy, I decided to make an infographic for myself on the page https://kitchenbackground.com/hearty-marinara-sauce/ .
I will be grateful if you take a look and rate it. The recipe is great! I advise everyone!!!
Really delicious! It’s a keeper for me. And thank you for explaining the seafood/marinara thing. I was wondering why googling “marinara” kept giving me plain tomato pasta sauce until I found your post.
Love this recipe Nagi, youre the best! My sons fiance follows you now too.(youre teaching her to cook 🙂
Very nice recipe, it worked like a charm and my wife loved it too.
Worked SO well and was such an easy dish to make. Also the portion sizes are great. Tasted great again the next day too.
Thanks Ash! I am happy that you enjoyed the dish! N x
Excellent. Came across this looking what to do with 500g of seafood marinara I had acquired. Actually had all the ingredients and adjusted to suit but used chicken stock and drank the wine 😉.
You are my kind of cook!! N x
I followed this recipe completely except that I doubled the quantity!! Delicious- and still tasted as good the next day. I wish I had tripled the quantity!!
Woo hoo!!! That’s a winner for you then!! I’m glad you liked it! N x
Absolutely delicious. Made it for dinner on Easter Saturday. My fish monger made up some marinara mix . Following your steps for cooking the seafood at differing times was spot on . Evetyjing was so tender . Absolute winner and will be making again . Thank you
That’s great Bec!! I’m so happy you liked it! N x
love all your recipes easy quick and simple ingredients love this recipe thankyou
Simple, easy and delicious recipe. Thanks Nagi, you’ve done it again.