Creamy and light one-pot seafood pasta

Easy, creamy, light, and nutritious

I love a combination of seafood (shrimp, scallop, lobster tail), cauliflower, mushroom, and pasta in a creamy sauce, and wanted to make something not too heavy or messy. So, after several tries, settled on this one-pot recipe: sauté garlic and seafood ahead in olive oil, set them aside, in the same pot, sauté sliced mushrooms, add chicken stock and pasta, then add cauliflower and whole milk, and finish it up with green vegetables (asparagus, kale, broccoli) for added color and nutrition and parmesan or other Italian cheese.

Just the right creaminess

The creaminess comes from the whole milk and starch from cooked pasta. Authentic pasta lovers, chastise me if you would, but I use spaghetti noodles broken in half because it’s much easier to handle. I happen to like broken spaghetti, but actually smaller piece pasta with pockets or creases, like penne, cavatappi, and radiatori will work great with this sauce.

Addition of grated cheese (parmesan, asiago) and sometimes crushed parmesan crisps will enhance texture and creaminess, and it’s entirely optional.

Depending on the amount of chicken stock and type of milk you use, it will turn out sometimes super creamy, sometimes soupy, and always a rewarding cooking and eating experience.

If you end up with a left-over, you can add more cheese and bake it in the oven like this Baked Brie Mac & Cheese.

Hope you enjoy the creaminess and lightness of this pasta dish.

Po’girl’s one-pot creamy seafood pasta

Creamy and light pasta with seafood, cauliflower, and asparagus cooked in one pot with chicken stock and milk.

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Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 2

Calories 704 kcal

Ingredients

  

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• 12 shrimps mid-size, peeled
• 6 scallops sliced into 1/2 thickness
• 2 oz lobster tails optional, only if you have them
• 1/2 head cauliflower broken apart in small pieces
• 4 cups asparagus tips and stems separated and broken into 3 inch pieces
• 2 oz cremini or button mushrooms
• 1.5 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup whole milk can use 1/2 cup heavy oil or 2/3 cup of half & half
• 5 oz pasta pasta of your choice
• 5 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons oregano or 1 tblspn if dried
• 1 piece red fresno pepper can use 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flake
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated; or crushed Parmesan crisps

Instructions

 

• Prepare asparagus – soak the asparagus in a lightly salted water upside down for about an hour and gently shake them every 10 – 15 minutes to remove fine sands trapped in the tips.
  
• Prepare seafood – pat dry seafood in a single layer on a paper towel and lightly season with 1/4 spoon of salt and pepper.
• Prepare cauliflower – after lightly washing the cauliflower florets, break them apart into about 1/2 inch pieces.
  
• Finish asparagus prep – towel dry the asparagus separate tips and stems by breaking them into 3-4 inch pieces. Discard hard ends.
  
• Thinly slice mushrooms.
• Prepare aromatics – slice/chop garlic, red pepper and oregano into small pieces.
  
• Sauté aromatics and seafoods – heat a heavy skillet pan in medium high, and when it's hot, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let it settle . Add garlic/pepper/oregano and sauté for about a minute. Move the aromatics to the edge of the pan, add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, and sauté the seafood pieces about 2 minutes on each side.
  
• Remove the seafoods and aromatics into a plate and cover to keep warm.
  
• Sauté mushrooms and cook pasta – Add sliced mushrooms to the pan and sauté about 2 minutes. Add chicken broth (before adding, warm it up in a small pan or microwave) and pasta to the pan. Cover the pan and cook the pasta until the broth starts boiling (for about 2-3 minutes), remove the cover and continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add a small amount of broth if the pan gets too dry.
  
• Add milk, cauliflower, and asparagus – Add milk (pre-heated in microwave), and after a minute, add cauliflower, then in about two minutes, add the asparagus stems and finally in another minute, the asparagus.
• Add back seafoods and aromatics, and Parmesan – about a minute after you add the asparagus stems, add back seafoods and aromatics to the pan, and add Parmesan (grated cheese or crushed crisp) and cook for another minute. Let it sit for a minute or two before serving.
  

Nutrition

Calories: 704kcalCarbohydrates: 87gProtein: 41gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 1588mgPotassium: 1863mgFiber: 13gSugar: 17gVitamin A: 2587IUVitamin C: 112mgCalcium: 671mgIron: 10mg

Keyword antioxdant, asparagus, cauliflower, creamy, cruciferous, kale, light, one pot, pasta, scallop, shrimp

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