Enjoy my Sicilian Style Seafood on your table tonight!
One of the great joys of life for me is cooking. I love to mix up flavors, textures and add the unexpected to dishes whenever I can. That doesn’t I still don’t enjoy the classics, but every now and then I like to change it up a bit.
The one thing I miss about my restaurant days is having all of those ingredients at my fingertips. All prepped, cut, and ready to go…… My sauces sitting on the back of the range and those special ingredients that I had for the night.
One of the greatest lessons Mama Jeanette taught me was to listen to the food. She would tell me “sonny boy, the food will tell you what it wants if you just listen”, and she was right. In my restaurant days, mixing ingredients had been my gift I, simply knowing without knowing what to add to make each creation a memorable experience. And when I had so many things to choose from sometimes those meals dishes became events.
Being at the shore everyone loved seafood, and broiled combos, lobsters and shrimp were always big sellers. What I tried to do was change the way my customers thought of seafood, and began serving it with different combinations of flavors and ingredients.
One of my favorite ingredients to use as a base is quick-fried eggplant. Tender and oh so flavorful, eggplant found itself under a number of different sauces and a variety of seafood.
What do I need to make Sicilian Style Seafood?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Sicilian Style Seafood. In Chef Speak this is called the Mise en Place which translates into Everything in its Place.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How do I make Sicilian Style Seafood?
Let’s start by prepping the eggplant.
- Coat eggplant in flour seasoned with sea salt and black pepper
- Dip the floured eggplant into an egg wash
- Coat the egg-washed eggplant cutlet into the seasoned breadcrumbs, completely coating the eggplant
- Repeat the process until the eggplant is breaded
Saute the breaded eggplant cutlets until golden brown.
With the eggplant prepped we can now get started on the sauce and seafood. Start by sauteing the peppers, onions and mushrooms in a little olive oil. Then adding in the shrimp and scallops to the pan. Cook the seafood till almost done and remove the shrimp and scallops from the pan.
After removing the shrimp and scallops from the saute pan, add the garlic, olives, basil, and seasoning. Add additional olive oil if needed.
Add the tomato sauce and grated Romano cheese to the pan and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. When the sauce is ready add the shrimp and scallops to the pan and continue simmering for another 3-4 minutes.
Serve the Sicilian Style Seafood over a quick-fried eggplant plank and linguine.
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Sicilian Style Seafood
Ingredients
Eggplant Planks
- 2 slices eggplant cut the long way
- ½ cup flour seasoned with sea salt and black pepper
- 1 large egg whipped with a little added water
- ½ cup bread crumbs seasoned or plain
Sicilian Style Seafood
- olive oil as needed
- 6 large shrimp cleaned peeled and deveined
- 8 large scallops
- ½ cup diced onion diced
- ½ cup red pepper diced
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- ⅓ cup green and black olives sliced
- 2 cups tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup grated Romano cheese
- 1 tbsp fresh basil chopped
- ⅙ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
Assembly
- ½ lb linguine
- 1 tsp parsley finely chopped
- 2 eggplant planks quick-fried
Instructions
Quick Fried Eggplant Planks
- Peel and slice eggplant into long planks
- flour eggplant planks, dip in egg wash, then into seasoned bread crumbs. continue until all the eggplant planks have been breaded.
- Heat pan and add olive oil and quick fry breaded eggplant planks on both sides until golden brown. Keep warm in 250 degree oven until ready to serve.
- {Start water for pasta. Begin cooking pasta when the sauce is simmering }
Sicilian Style Seafood
- In a large skillet hot and add a little olive oil, mushrooms, peppers, and onions. Saute until mushrooms and peppers have softened.
- Add the shrimp and scallops to the pan and sear them on both sides. Cook until almost done, then remove the seafood from the pan and hold until needed.Do not cook the seafood completely, it will be finished later in the sauce.
- Add olives, garlic, basil, and seasonings to the pan and continue to saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the tomato sauce and grated Romano cheese to the pan and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. If the mixture gets too thick add in a little water.
- When the sauce is ready to serve add the shrimp and scallops to the pan and continue simmering for another 4-6 minutes.
Assembly
- Place fried eggplant plank on plate and a mound of past next to it. Place shrimp and scallops on eggplant, spoon sauce over both and enjoy!
woody woodward
great receipe. loved it
Kerri
I love all of the really great flavors that are in this dish! It’s also a really great tip to have me mise en place we are getting ready to cook! Such a timesaver!
Jo
Your recipes always brings a smile on my face Dennis! This is such an amazing recipe, i love every thing on that plate. Looks so delicious!
Sylai from 30 days of Greek food
Love everything about this dish and this is definately authentic Mediterranean food at its best. Thank you for sharing.
Emily
Great recipe. I made it tonight. I followed the recipe except I added fresh mussels to it. I cooked them separate in white wine them added them to the sauce. I also made fresh pasta instead of store bought which makes a huge difference.