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Halloween main dishes are relatively easy when they contain meat because the flesh of animals satisfies the gross factor when it come to Halloween food. It’s right up there with purple vegetables and black pasta where the colors alone make them perfect Halloween ready fare. So as I looked to come up with a Christmas/Halloween main dish, all the usual holiday flesh came to mind…turkey, ham, prime rib, rack of lamb…easy contenders for a spooky main dish, but not quite what I had in mind. Seafood on the other hand, literally screams Halloween! The creepy crawly shrimp and lobster, the tentacles of squid and octopus are right out of the casting room for frightful food. So I made this easy Frightful Feast inspired by the Italian-American Christmas tradition of The Feast of the Seven Fishes using six different types of seafood and some squid ink pasta to round out the seventh fish ingredient. Ready-to-eat mini octopi gives this dish the creature feature Halloween food requires, but feel free to substitute with calamari or other spooky sea creatures. Not only is it amazingly delicious, it’s super easy to prepare any night of the week. Enjoy!
Frightful Feast
Ingredients
- 2-2½ lbs Mixed frozen seafood (langoustines, small shrimp, bay scallops, calamari, and clams), thawed
- ½ jar mini octopi (ready to eat packed in oil), rinsed (substitute with calamari)
- 1 pound squid ink spaghetti
- ½ cup butter
- ¼ cup shallots, finely minced
- 4 cloves garlic, grated
- 1½ tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
- 1 cup white wine
- ½ cup cream (optional)
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 3 tbsp. Italian parsley, minced (garnish)
Instructions
- Cook pasta al dente in salted water according to package directions and transfer to a warm serving bowl with a squirt of olive oil.
- Melt butter in a large saucepan, add shallots, garlic, thawed seafood (do not add the octopus at this time, since it is already cooked), Old Bay seasoning, and wine and cook on high heat for about 6-8 minutes or until shrimp have curled and turned pink. Remove seafood with a slotted spoon and add it to the cooked pasta. Add the ready to eat octopus to the pasta bowl as well. To the saucepan, add lemon zest and juice, cream(optional), parsley and heat for 1-2 minutes more. Pour the hot sauce over pasta and toss. Garnish with more parsley. Enjoy!
