Delicious Creamy Seafood Pasta

Last night we were fortuned to have two of our friends over for dinner. It was a very pleasant surprise! When I learned we would have guests for dinner I had to figure out what to cook. I was craving some sort of pasta with creamy and cheesy sauce, so I just had to think of what else to add to this pasta dish. I remembered I had cooked shrimp and blue crab meat in the fridge and “voila”! I just needed to add some of my other favorite ingredients and a new dish was born!  I hope our friends enjoyed it as much as I did.

Mascarpone Cheese & Seafood Pasta:

Ingredients:

1 cup of mascarpone cheese

4 cups of uncooked pasta

1lb of cooked large shrimp

6oz of blue crab meat

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ cup of sliced green onions or scallions

½ of roasted sweet bell pepper, diced

1 cup of tomatoes, diced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

½ cup of milk

½ cup of parmesan cheese

_1/3 cup of half & half

8oz of fresh baby spinach

1 tablespoon of dried Italian herbs seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water with the starch from the pasta.

In a large sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and roasted bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese, milk, half &half and stir until mascarpone cheese is fully melted. Stir in green onions, Italian seasoning and spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

Fold in cooked pasta, crab meat, shrimp and parmesan cheese. Stir in the reserved cooking water as needed to obtain the desired sauce consistency (1 tablespoon at the time). Check the seasoning. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve immediately topped with additional parmesan cheese if desired.

Note: You can add left-over grilled or baked salmon and cooked clams.

“Life is too short, and I'm Italian. I'd much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0.” Sophia Bush