How to Cook with Mixed Frozen Seafood: Pasta in Wine Sauce

Spaghetti with Mixed Seafood is a classic Italian dish of shrimp, clams, mussels, and squid in a savory sauce of garlic, tomatoes, and wine. By using frozen mixed seafood, you can serve four people for around $15.

This classic Italian Dish is made affordable with frozen mixed seafood.

You may have had a seafood pasta dish at a northern Italian or seafood restaurant that you can't forget. Shrimp, clams, or mussels in a sauce of white wine, shallots, cherry tomatoes, and garlic. Serious Eats, a wonderful site for cooks looking to "up their game" and elevate their cooking, has an excellent recipe for Spaghetti allo Scoglio with the brilliant idea of cooking the spaghetti in clam juice or seafood juices (instead of pasta water) and adding the seafood at the end to prevent overcooking it. It's a brilliant recipe. But it calls for more than three pounds of fresh seafood, unavailable to many people because of location or cost. By making your pasta with frozen mixed seafood, you can make Spaghetti allo Scoglio inexpensively.

Pasta with Frozen Mixed Seafood

Even if your budget is limited, you can produce a very good version of Spaghetti allo Scoglio with frozen seafood. I see very reasonably priced bags of frozen mixed seafood everywhere I go. Costco has a huge bag, Aldi has a one-pound option for around $8, and my Asian grocery has a very nice 14-oz. bag for $3.99. They all contain shrimp, squid, mussels, and clams. The Asian grocery version adds octopus and fake crab, but it's still a nice bag of seafood. (I stared at these bags for years, thinking, "Great price, but what would you do with them?" ) In truth, most good seafood recipes can be modified to use frozen mixed seafood for delicious results.

Bags of frozen mixed seafood from Costco, Walmart, Aldi and other groceries are good values for quality seafood.

When I make this recipe, I love to add a bag of frozen mussels in their shells because they elevate the dish and make it look so fresh. Frozen mussels are outrageously cheap, often around $3 per pound. Aldi, Wild Fork, and Walmart sell cooked muscles in the shell for around $3. It's an inexpensive way to wow your crew!

One word of caution with the frozen mussels in the shell: they must be cleaned, even if the box says they are ready to eat. They are not ready to eat. They need to be washed and any residual "beards" removed. Thaw the mussels in a colander and place them in a large bowl. Then, wash and clean your mussels, but first, retain the liquid from the bowl. Strain this liquid through a fine sieve to remove any sand, shell, or beard portion.

A bag of frozen mixed seafood and a box of frozen mussels.

Ingredients for Spaghetti with Mixed Seafood

The ingredients needed for this recipe can be found at your local supermarket, Aldi, Walmart, or other chain grocery stores.

The ingredients for Spaghetti with Mixed Frozen Seafood are mostly purchased at Aldi.

To prepare this recipe, you will need these ingredients, at a cost of around $15:

• a one-pound bag of mixed frozen seafood. (Aldi, $6.99)

• a one-pound bag of frozen mussels in the shell. (Aldi, $3)

• 3 T good extra virgin olive oil

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 3-4 shallots, thinly sliced

• 1 t. crushed red pepper flakes

• 1 cup white wine (Aldi Sauvignon Blanc, $1 of a $3.50 bottle)

• 8-ounce bottle of clam juice (Walmart, $2.50)

• Additional water or optional seafood stock.

• 12 ounces of dried spaghetti (Aldi, $0.75)

• One pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half, or 2-3 chopped Roma tomatoes (Aldi, $1.50)

• Fresh Italian Parsley and the juice of a lemon for garnish (optional)

  
  

Wine for Cooking on a Budget

I like to cook with the Aldi house label (Winking Owl) Sauvignon Blanc. They say not to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink, and I would drink this wine, and at under $4/bottle, it's affordable. But you can use any dry white wine you have open—use the leftovers from your last bottle. It's okay; any dry white wine will do.

Clam Juice or Seafood Stock

This recipe calls for cooking the spaghetti or other pasta in clam juice or seafood stock. Bottles of clam juice are available at most grocery stores and are inexpensive (Walmart's option is around $2.50 per 8-oz. bottle). Walmart also sells a carton of inexpensive seafood, but I get better results using plain old clam juice. If you have homemade seafood stock, by all means, use that. I save my shrimp, crab shells, and fish carcasses in a Ziploc bag in the freezer until I have enough for a batch of seafood stock. It is superior, but you can get a good result with bottled clam juice. (But consider using your seafood scraps and shells to make stock- you will feel like the most frugal cook in the world, and the result will be just delicious. )

Tomatoes and Shallots

I like to use diced Roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes cut in half for the tomatoes in this recipe. In a pinch, you can use a can of petite diced tomatoes, but try to find a good fresh option, as it makes such a difference in the dish's taste.

You can find shallots cheaply (I mean cheaply) at a good Asian market or farmer's market. Sprouts also sells good shallots cheaply. In a pinch, substitute green onions or scallions for shallots. Either works very well in this recipe.

Aromatics and Parsley

You should use fresh garlic and parsley in this recipe. "Jarlic" (bottled chopped garlic) is fine when garlic plays

Fresh garlic and parsley make this dish.

a minor role in a dish. But here, the garlic and wine are the stars, so you should peel and mince (or press) your garlic. Similarly, fresh parsley is really necessary for the brightness of this dish. It's available at Aldi and Walmart for around $1 and enhances whatever you cook. Plus, it looks pretty sprinkled on top before serving.

Cheese and Italian Seafood Dishes

A word on cheese. A true Italian cook would never put Parmesan or other hard cheese on a seafood dish. I can respect that. But what you put on your Spaghetti allo Scoglio in your house is up to you. If you want parmesan on top, sprinkle away.

One Pot Cooking

This wonderful dish is cooked in one pot, beginning with sauteing the aromatics and steaming the (already cooked) mussels in wine. The pan drippings produce a wonderful stock when you add clam juice or seafood stock. The spaghetti is then cooked in this stock (instead of water), with the seafood and tomatoes added at the end. Add some of the pasta water to the dish at the end to make it creamy without adding cream or butter (the pot's starch content will be quite high from cooking the pasta).

How to make pasta with mixed frozen seafood.

The result is a platter of excellent seafood and pasta!

Spaghetti allo Scoglio, made with Mixed Frozen Seafood