Herbed Seafood Pasta

Sometimes recipes are born out of necessity. Sometimes there are born out of the ingredients you have in your cupboards and freezer. This recipe was born out of the latter. As usual, I’m trying to clean out the freezers and make a little room in them. After a quick rummage through the garage freezer I found a bag of scallops that I had long forgot about. A peek into the kitchen freezer turned up some shrimp. What to make??

Pasta and seafood is a common combo round these parts. Seafood is reasonable here so we eat it quite often (when we don’t forget the hidden scallops). I added in some ricotta, some fresh herbs from the garden, a little cheese, some good olive oil and viola….Herbed Seafood Pasta.

This is the perfect summer dinner.

It’s not heavy and the fresh herbs and lemon really give it wonderful flavor.

Herbed Seafood Pasta
Printable recipe
1-pound twisty pasta

(you want something the cheeses can hold on to.

I used campanelle)
1 cup – part skim ricotta cheese
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
½ cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, chopped*
½ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped*
2 cups medium sized scallops
1 pound medium shrimp
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat a large covered pot with salted water and bring to a boil.

Cook the pasta until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking in a bowl combine the ricotta, feta and lemon peel. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the shrimp and scallops in 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat. They should only take 4 – 6 minutes to cook.

Watch them carefully so they don’t overcook.



Reserve 1/3 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Stir the reserved cooking water into the ricotta mixture, toss with the pasta. Add in the chopped herbs, shrimp and scallops and Parmesan cheese. Top with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.

*To avoid confusion on the herbs – You don’t want ½ cup of chopped herbs for the final dish. You want to loosely pack your measuring cup with the parsley and basil and then chop the ½ cup of herbs. You won’t end up with a ½ cup of the herbs after they are chopped. Just wanted to clear that up, cause 1 full cup of chopped herbs in this dish would be a bit overkill.