Seafood Rigatoni with Basil

When not from The Fiddlehead Cookbook, I find that majority of recipes I try and like come from Bon Appetit magazine. On epicurious.com most of these recipes are searchable and at some point I realized that most of recipes saved to my online recipe box originally appeared in the magazine. This discovery necessitated buying a subscription and sometime early last spring I started receiving my monthly installment.

I have not kept track of how many recipes I have made from the magazines I have received. In some sense it is better just to have the internet search function on hand because at least for me, when I want to cook, I either have something on hand that I need to use or I want to make something specific.

With a magazine you never know what you are going to get. I have very much enjoyed receiving it every month, and I have gotten a lot of new ideas from what I have read . However, there was one particular month that we made several recipes out of. The September, 2010 edition of Bon Appetit included Baked Eggs with Bacon and Spinach (delicious, we learned it can be made in a microwave, and its a great way to eat veggies for breakfast), Mushroom Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy, and Rigatoni with Shrimp, Calamari and Basil. All of these recipes were worth making and inspire me to do more than just let the pictures in my monthly Bon Appetit make me hungry.

The Seafood Rigatoni was part of the magazines restaurant edition and comes from a 'glitzy and expensive' restaurant called Marea in Central Park South, New York City. The printed recipe looked easy and delicious, and I happened to have some frozen shrimp and a bag of frozen mixed seafood (which included calamari). If you enjoy seafood this is worth giving a try and it happens to have one of my favorite ingredients in it: leeks.

If you have never used leeks in cooking you are missing out. This is one thing I have decided I have to figure out how to grow because they can be very difficult and/or expensive to find at super markets. I am convinced they just manage to make dishes delicious. Everything I have ever made with them has gone onto my 'must make again' list. They are somewhat like a large green onion, or a weird garlic/onion love child. When you cook with them you use only the white and light green parts but the way they are constructed makes finding all of the light green parts like unwrapping a present. I am convinced that the tops of the leeks would be great to add to a broth for flavor, even if they are too tough to eat; someday I will need to try that.

Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked raw large (or medium) shrimp, peeled and deveined (most frozen shrimp from the grocery store come like this)
14 oz. cleaned calamari or seafood mix (I used the mixed frozen seafood from Trader Joe's) If you don't like calamari you could ad additional shrimp or substitute with another seafood option i.e scallops
12 oz. Rigatoni Pasta, for this recipe make sure to invest in high quality pasta
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only; about 3 large. If you are confused about how to use a leek try this)
3 large garlic cloves (or more!), thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon (or more!) crushed dried red pepper
1 8 oz. bottle of clam juice-- this can be found with the canned seafood at the supermarket
1/3 cup(or more!) frozen peas thawed
4 Tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup + finely grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

The recipe suggests that you take 1/2 your shrimp and 1/2 of your calamari and/or sea food mix and set it aside in the bowl. Take the remaining shrimp and calamari and dice or put through a food processor until finely chopped. Place the finely chopped mixture in a second bowl.

Cook Rigatoni in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. When done drain the pasta and return the drained noodles to their pot. The next steps do not take too long so they should be able to be completed while the pasta is cooking.

While pasta is cooking heat 5 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large skilled over medium-high. When the pan is hot add leeks, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I love my food with extra garlic and spice so I almost always double recipes garlic and pepper suggestions.

Saute these ingredients until the leeks are tender. This will not take more than 5 minutes. Make sure to stir as they cook so they do not stick to the bottom.

To the leeks add the chopped or food processed seafood and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the clam juice and the peas and cook for an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in 3 Tablespoons of butter, season with salt and pepper, and cover and set aside.

Add 1 Tablespoon of oil and 1 Tablespoon of butter to a skilled. Heat over medium high until butter is melted. Add the remaining shrimp and cook 2 minutes then add the calamari or seafood mix and cook until the seafood just turns opaque. Seafood is a bit tricky to cook because you know when its done when its color changes. It happens very quickly and the only way to tell is that the seafood suddenly doesn't glisten or look raw any more. It will not taste horrible if overcooked, however, the texture does become chewy. When seafood is done take off heat and set aside.

Add chopped shrimp/seafood mix to drained pasta noodles with 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup basil.

Divide pasta into bowls, top with seafood. Sprinkle remaining grated cheese and basil on top.

This recipe serves four and, as it is seafood, it is not as good when reheated. The shrimp tends to get tough. Regardless, it is delicious so if there are leftovers there will be little complaining. When we made it we really enjoyed it, and enjoyed the leftovers. I was suspicious about the frozen peas but they were great. I ended up added more than the called for 1/3 cup. My one addition would be to add about 1/2 cup of cream to the chopped seafood sauce. The recipe already has 10 Tablespoons of oil or butter in it, so there is no pretending it is low calorie. I figure one might as well do a thing properly. I like my pasta sauces just a bit creamy and I would enjoy this addition.

One of the things I loved about this recipe is that for something that looks so fancy it is easy to make... As long as you have a food processor. I do not have one, and hand mincing seafood was an experience. This is a great meal for seafood loving company or for a special weeknight treat.

Spicy Peanut Pasta

I am not sure if this blog and my backlog of yet to be written about meals accurately reflect my meat eating tendencies. I do eat meat. However, it seems that most of what I have written about or put on the 'to write about list' since starting this project are vegetarian or vegan meals. Perhaps I am subconsciously self-conscious about my meat eating tenancies, or am trying to present a that I consume a more healthful diet in this public forum. However, I believe this to be unlikely as I have a planned forthcoming post on doughnuts. I think the most likely explanations are that I am very conscious of other peoples eating habits, so when I find good vegetarian or vegan recipes I always make sure to note them down. Also, of the recipes I make over and over again, the ones that I really look forward to are vegan or vegetarian. These recipes are in some sense my comfort food, more so than pot roast or roasted chicken. I suspect that once I get through writing up my favorites carnivorous dishes may make more frequent appearances.

One of my favorite all time vegetarian recipes is Spicy Peanut Pasta. The first time I had this recipe I was living with my sister and we spent a good amount of time debating over the strangeness of pasta with spicy peanut sauce, then just as much time trying to find the soba noodles, and finally almost gave up in the time consuming process of vegetable chopping. The result was delicious to the point of going back for thirds. And, I believe the first time we made it I got a stomach ache from eating too many vegetables-- how often does that happen?

Since that first meal, Spicy Peanut Pasta has been on my 'must cook again' list. It is something that gets made whenever it seems I am going to overwhelmed by my produce drawer. The recipe calls for specific vegetables, but the real keys are the peanut sauce and the soba noodles. Any veggies that are on hand can be substituted, and the recipe is very generous when it comes to guessing on quantities. I think I often have double the recommended amount of veggies and it always turned out delicious.

This is a great dish to make for company that does not eat meat and could also have chicken or pork added if meat was felt to be essential. I have added tofu to it before, but if a vegetarian meat option was wanted I would recommend seitan as it holds up better and would be delicious with spicy peanut sauce. The only difficult part about this recipe is the vegetable chopping, so unless you have a real love for your chef knife and want to get rid of some negative emotions by thinly slicing onions I suggest you do not cook this recipe alone. Of course, you could always purchase frozen chopped veggies and get out of the most time consuming part. Like my recipe for Sourdough French Bread, and many other of my favorite recipes (yet to be written about) the recipe for Spicy Peanut comes from The Fiddlehead Cookbook page 128.


For the Hot Peanut Sauce (above cookbook page 223)

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oriental sesame oil
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or substitute apple cider vinegar)
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I always at least double this, ginger is delicious)
1 Tablespoon mince fresh garlic 3 to 4 large cloves (again I always at least double the garlic)
1 Tablespoon (or more!) finely chopped green onions (use the white and green parts)
1 Tablespoon (or more!) oriental hot oil -- hot oil can be found in most international food aisles in major grocery stores or at your friendly Asian Market
1 Tablespoon (or more!) chopped fresh cilantro

In a large bowl by hand, or with a mixer, whip together all ingredients until creamy in appearance.

You are now done with the spicy peanut sauce. You can set it aside in a bowl, or refrigerate for later use.

As you can see, I like my spicy peanut sauce with extra flavorings. This has always come out well for me and, at least with this pasta, it has never been overwhelming. The cookbook indicates that this sauce can be used for stir fried veggies, chicken, pork or noodles. So there may be some cases where you want to stick to the quantities suggested by the recipe so as not to overwhelm your dish. However, for spicy peanut pasta you can at least double all of garlic/ginger/etc. without worrying about having a sauce with too much flavor.


For the Spicy Peanut Pasta:

You can slice all of the veggies early and put in a large bowl in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. All veggies should be sliced lengthwise or on a diagonal so they mix in with the noodles easily. To think of it another way, the veggies should be sliced so that they could be eaten with chop sticks. To prevent slices of green pepper, carrot, or zucchini from getting too long they can be cut in half or thirds or thinly sliced on the diagonal. The careful chopping does increase the prep time for this recipe but I have tried it with normal chopped or diced veggies and I definitely think it is worth putting forth the chopping effort.

Thinly slice
2 cups - at least one large- onion (any color) sliced from tip to stem
1 1/2 cups -1 to 2- bell peppers (any color) sliced as above
1 to 1 1/2 cups carrots sliced as above
1 to 1 1/2 cups zucchini sliced as above
1 to 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets and thinly sliced trimmed stems
1 small eggplant peeled and cut into cubes (about 2 to 3 cups)

As stated earlier this recipe is forgiving. The above calls for around 9 cups of veggies. If you happen to have 12 cups of veggies, peas instead of green peppers, or hate broccoli just substitute and go for it. Spicy Peanut sauce is delicious on everything. If you have 6 cups of vegetables just add a few extra noodles or reduce the amount of liquid added at the end.

One thing that I think is important in this recipe is the eggplant. I didn't used to like eggplant but it is very good in this recipe. If possible, I would recommend getting smaller chinese or thai eggplants, or making this with freshly picked eggplants in the summer-- the giant woody eggplants you find at most supermarkets are not nearly as delicious. For more on eggplants look up Alton Brown's eggplant Good Eats episode. After some wonderful eggplant experiences I am fully convinced that the reason most people don't like eggplants is that they have not eaten good ones.

When everything is chopped bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook in boiling water 1 lb Buckwheat Soba Noodles to al dente. These noodles cook fast, so be careful to not over cook. You can find Buckwheat Soba at an Asian Grocery or, if your supermarket has a good selection, in the international aisle. They apparently are superior to wheat noodles in terms of nutrition and are delicious and worth going through the trouble to find for this recipe. I have substituted normal pasta before and was not as happy with the result. When noodles have cooked to al dente drain them, rinse briefly with cold water and set aside.

While your noodle water is heating in a another large wok or pot heat up 2 Tablespoons of oil (look at the quantity of veggies you have and try to find a pot that you fit all of them in). Once oil is hot add veggies. Stir veggies to evenly coat with oil and cook in a very hot pan or wok for about 2 minutes. Cover with a lid and cook 2 minutes more. Veggies should be softened but still crisp. If your adding any meat (precook meat), tofu, or seitan add at this point to heat through.

To the veggies add the Hot Peanut Sauce and at least 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Coconut milk can be found in a can in the international section of most grocery stores. I usually just add the entire can, but if you have not chopped up as many veggies just start with 1/2 cup. You can always add more later. Mix the veggies until combined with peanut sauce and coconut milk. Add the cooked noodles and toss until combined. Add more coconut milk if desired.

Serve with sliced green onions, chopped cocktail peanuts, and chopped cilantro as garnishes. I always like to add Sriracha as I love my food spicy.


This dish makes a ton, so make it for a crowd or plan on freezing some for later. It is great as leftovers and thaws and heats up well. Last time I had so many veggies that we froze some for later and had a weeks worth of leftovers for lunch. I will offer the warning that veggies paired with buckwheat noodles and coated with peanut sauce come close to being addictive. Though this dish is relatively healthy it is so tasty that you may have the strange experience of a veggie based caloric binge.