Spicy, Garlicky, Creamy Seafood Pasta

Whenever I find gorgeous large King crab legs, there’s a dish I have to make and that’s pasta with crab, shrimp and calamari with spicy tomato sauce. I originally made this for Christmas eve, and it was so good I made it again. What’s best about this dish is it only takes 20 minutes to cook and it’s so satisfying!

Seafood

For seafood pasta, you have several seafood options to choose from, but my all time favorite combo is crab, shrimp and calamari. It takes bit of time and effort to shell the meat from hard, pointy shells, but it’s worth the time and effort. If you can’t find fresh king crab legs, try canned Dungeness crab meat.

If you can’t find fresh shrimp or calamari at your local market, look for frozen shrimp or calamari. I encountered this problem with calamari and found a package of great frozen wild caught calamari from Whole Foods. I like calamari tentacles, but if that bothers you they have a version with tubes only.

Sauce & Fresh Pasta

My favorite ready made pasta sauce at the moment is Spicy Chunky Tomato & Pepper Pasta Sauce from Trader Joe’s. This sauce has good, spicy kick which is great for spicy food lover like me. But I ended up adding some fresh Fresno chili peppers to my sauce; I can never have enough spicy kick to my dishes. Use Arrabbiata sauce if you can’t find this sauce from Trader Joe’s.

For pasta too, you have many options to choose from, but for my dish I chose fresh kale and spinach fettuccini pasta (delicious!) that I also picked up from Whole Foods. As I said, I made this originally for Christmas eve dinner and I wanted some green element in my dish for the holidays.

Cooking Seafood

Cooking this pasta dish is so easy, because it only takes few minutes to cook seafood. You’d never want to overcook them; you’ll end up with plateful of mush!

Another thing with this dish is to cook each seafood one at a time in your skillet, so each seafood cooks properly and get a chance to soak up olive oil, butter and garlic before you add the pasta sauce.

As a finishing touch, add touch of heavy cream and grated parmesan cheese to your sauce to get a thick, creamy, rich finish. Then transfer cooked pasta to the skillet and toss the pasta so every bit of pasta gets coated with this yummy sauce and it’s ready to eat!

Print Recipe

Spicy and Creamy Seafood Pasta

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1½ large king crag legs, shelled and crab meat cut into 1 inch pieces
• 12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ lb calamari tubes and tentacles. Tubes cut into 1½ inch pieces
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 2 cups spicy tomato or arrabbiata sauce
• 4-5 garlic cloves, sliced
• ½ of fresno chili, seeds removed and chopped (optional)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup heavy cream or half and half
• 3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 9 oz fresh fettuccini pasta

Garnish

• grated parmesan cheese (optional)
• ½ cup basil leaves (optional)

Instructions

• Bring large pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain pasta and set it aside.
• Heat large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil and butter. When butter is completely melted, stir in garlic and fresno chili. (Do not burn garlic and chili)
• When garlic and fresno chili is well infused with olive oil and butter, stir in crab meat to the skillet first and cook for about 30 seconds then remove from skillet. Next add shrimp to the skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes or until it turns light pink then remove from skillet.
• Cook calamari in the skillet for one minute then add crab, shrimp, and tomatoes. Stir in pasta sauce, heavy cream and grated parmesan cheese. Let sauce simmer for 3-4 minutes under low heat.
• Transfer cooked pasta to the skillet and toss pasta to coat with sauce. Transfer pasta to a bowl and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese and add chiffonade basil leaves before serving.