Seafood Saturday

When it comes to signature dishes Thomas’ has to be Seafood pasta. It was the first thing he ever cooked for me and I was both wowed and charmed by his culinary abilities.

Having had a very healthy week (I’ve managed to take to Pilates and surprised even myself with my new fitness regime) we decided to go all out on Saturday night. We had a prawn dish for starter which we cooked with garlic, chilli, shallots, cabbage, red wine vinegar, smoked paprika and parsley.

This was served with ample bread for dipping. I find one of the most enjoyable things about mealtimes is seeing all of the components chopped and ready to go. I geekily love this on cookery programmes and this is how our meal looked in the prep stage.


When we first tried the prawns we were not 100% convinced that the combinations worked but the more we ate the more we approved. The initial inspiration for this is a dish we have tried on a number of occasions at Del Parc, the Spanish restaurant across the road from where we live. It was different but still good.


Then, time for the main event. The seafood pasta. We used a combo of scallops and mussels with a sauce made from white wine, cherry tomatoes and crème fraiche. When using a good quality substantial pasta, like thick tagliatelle the sauce sticks to it and makes every mouthful full of flavour. Plenty of sauce leftover to be mopped up with bread is one of the many charms of this dish.


The delicate scallops and fragrant mussels combined with the sauce make for a slightly decadent but hugely satisfying weekend treat. Not every weekend of course but once in a while. I made a white chocolate and passionfruit mousse for dessert but neglected to take photos.