Seafood Spaghetti with Saffron and Chilli

Seafood Spaghetti with Saffron and Chilli

This is one of my favourite meals for Sunday when we're not having a roast dinner. I made it today and realised I've never shared the recipe. 

I used king prawns, mussels and squid today and it is a little faffy the way I prepare this with the squid being fried separately, but it well worth the preparation and extra pots and pans.

You could make these with prawns or mussels that aren't in the shell, however I urge you if possible to make with the shells still in-tact, it really does add to the flavour of the sauce.

People often marvel at the 'unusual' foods that my young daughters eat, including seafood, but it isn't unusual to them, as they have both had seafood from weaning and they absolutely love it, just like me.

I do use a cheat here, a pack of prepared Mussels in Garlic, which you can pick up from practically any supermarket; you can of course just use normal mussels, but the garlic sauce adds to the pasta sauce.

You could equally just throw the squid into the pan to cook with the rest of the seafood in the sauce direct if you prefer. I picked all of the seafood up from my local Morrison's and the kind fishmonger prepared the squid for me so I literally just had to cut, season and cook.

Here's how:

• 12 large king prawns
• Pack of mussels in garlic 
• 1 squid, body and tentacles
• 1 large white onion
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1 red chilli
• 4 tomatoes
• 400g passata
• 1 tsp saffron threads
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Handful parsley to serve
• Drizzle of olive oil
• 300-400g spaghetti or other pasta
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 lemon

Fill and boil the kettle. 

Add the drizzle of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pan and place on a low heat.

Finely dice the onion, mince the garlic and slice the chilli and add to the pan to saute.

Now roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the pan once everything else has softened down. Finely chop the parsley and set aside for garnish, and cute the lemon into wedges and set aside too.

Season at this point and add the oregano and saffron and allow to cook for a few minutes. 

Now add the passata and tomato puree and allow to cook for fifteen minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the squid. Clean if necessary, otherwise, finely slice into rings, and keep the tentacles. In a bowl add the plain flour and paprika and season generously with sea salt and black pepper, combine and then toss the squid rings and tentacles into the flour and ensure they are well-coated. Now set aside.

Once the sauce has been cooking away for fifteen minutes, place the pasta on to cook according to the packet instructions and when only eight minutes of cooking time is left, throw in the prawns and the mussels and immerse into the sauce, turning every couple of minutes to ensure they cook through. You can see when the prawns are cooked through as they will colour to pink. 

In a separate pan drizzle a little more olive or vegetable oil and place on a high heat and once hot, add the squid to the pan, allow to cook for thirty seconds, and then turn each squid over and cook for a further thirty seconds or until crisp, then remove from the heat and set aside. (Please don't be tempted to cook for longer, as it will result in chewy, rubbery squid, a common mistake.)

Before draining the pasta, add a serving spoon full of the pasta-cooking-water to the sauce to loosen up and help the sauce stick to the pasta. 

Drain and shake the spaghetti to remove excess water then add to the cooking pan with most of the parsley and stir really well, ensuring all of the spaghetti strands get a thorough coating and then quickly dish up for the family. 

Complete by scattering over a final sprinkling of chopped parsley and adding a few of the fried squid rings to each portion and placing a wedge of lemon with each. Enjoy!

Seafood Spaghetti with Saffron and Chilli

Some other seafood dishes you may enjoy:
Vicky's Special Seafood Stew
Crab and Asparagus Linguine with Parsley Grantitata
Prawn Summer Rolls
Prawn and Chorizo Carbonara
Honey Chilli and Coconut Prawns with Ho Fun
Gourmet Seafood Burger
Crab, Chilli and Asparagus Pappardelle
Spanish Prawns with Chorizo, Tomatoes and Peppers
Prawn Saganaki