Healthy Seafood Pasta

[Buffwannabe]

Hey guys, I am new to this forum, I have several questions about pasta. First of all, I love seafood. One of my favorite pasta dish is the seafood portifino from olive garden.

The seafood portifino is a pasta dish mainly composed of some sort of:

-garlic butter sauce mixed in some sort of rioux/reoux(sp?)
in fish/shrimp stalk

-Mussells/Scallops/Shrimps

-Pasta

I know many people think that Olive Garden is a total insult to authentic Italian food (and i agree with them for the most part) but that is the only exposure to Italian food that I have in my area. Here is my first question:

1) Does anyone know the EXACT recipe for this Olive garden dish, or does anyone have a recipe similar/or better than that?

I am also confused on what seasonings/spices/herbs they use in that dish, so the second question is:

2) How much of each ingrediant do i need? (like how much of stalk/butter/mussells/shrimp/etc..) and what seasonings and spices do they use?

My last question pertains to pasta itself. I am trying to be more health concious. Pasta is mostly composed of simple starchy carbs. I am trying to incorporate more complex carbs in my diet, does anyone know pasta/spaghetti that is composed of whole wheat, or complex carbs in general?

Thanks a lot you guys! I appreciate all your help!

 

[ironchef]

As far as Olive Garden's recipe, I don't eat there so I wouldn't know what their sauce tasted like. Did you try a search on Google? I've heard that most, if not all, of their sauces are made in bulk, then shipped to the different restaurants in plastic bags/containers. I don't know anyone who's ever worked there so I wouldn't know if that is true or not.

Ok, as far as a "healthy seafood pasta". The first thing you should do is to incorporate more of a tomato/marinara type sauce. You'll eliminate the need for butter which will be the first step in helping the pasta become more health concsious. I'm pretty sure their recipe incorporates some type of cream for their sauce too, so by using a tomato-based sauce, you'll cut down on a lot of calories and fat by eliminating more of the dairy. Use seafood stock to help flavor the pasta sauce and add a lot of vegetables to the sauce so that you can fill up on more veggies instead of just seafood. I've seen whole wheat pasta in the store but I'm not sure of which brand makes it. Again, do a search on google and you should find something.

 

[Buffwannabe]

I guess its not so much healthy seafood pasta after all.

Your recipe sounds good, but i still want to get the recipe to that dish, and come close to it as possible. I hope someone can tell me how to make that sauce. But i like ur suggestions as well. thank u .

 

[marmalady]

Here's a different recipe, but it's low-fat/cal, and yummy!


LINGUINE W/SAUCE VERDE

​

8 servings



1pkg.frozen spinach
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup ricotta
½ cup parsley
1/3 cup parmesan
1T fresh basil
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 large garlic clove
1 lb.linguini
½ cup toasted almonds
3T olive oil


Process all ingredients but pasta and almonds in food processor. Cook pasta as directed; drain; pour sauce and almonds over pasta, and toss to coat.

Okay - now to the recipe you want to copy - assuming the 'roux' was used to thicken the sauce a little.

Saute some chopped garlic in olive oil over med-low heat; you just want to soften the garlic, not toast it. Add some lemon juice or white wine, and reduce it down. Add enough chicken broth to make a sauce, bring to a boil. Add the seafood, cook just a couple of minutes til the mussels open and the shrimp turn pink.

Add a cornstarch/water mixture (a 'slurry') to the liquid as it boils, and stir to make sure the sauce is even. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper as needed. Add some chopped parsley at the end.