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 combo’s, 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 was a base of quick fried eggplant, tender and oh so flavorful. It found itself under a number of different sauces and a variety of seafood.
One of Lisa’s favorites will always be my Sicilian Style Seafood. She loves olives and loves this sauce. I hope it becomes one of your favorites too!
- 12 16-20 count shrimp cleaned peeled and deviened
- 12 large scallops
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1/2 cup diced red pepper
- 1/2 cup mushrooms
- 1/2 cup sliced green and black olives
- 2 cups crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp fresh basil chopped
- pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- sea salt to taste
- 1 lb linguine
- 1 cup seasoned flour
- 2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 cup large eggs lightly beaten mixed with 1/4 water
- olive oil as needed
- 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 shrimp and scallops have been cooked.}
- Get a large skillet hot and add a little olive oil and then add in the shrimp and scallops. Sear scallops and shrimp on both sides for color until almost done, and remove from pan.
- Add garlic, onion, peppers, and mushrooms saute until mushrooms and peppers have softened.
- Add in olives and crushed tomatoes, simmer on medium low heat for 5-7 minutes. If mixture gets too thick add in a little water.
- Season with crushed red pepper flakes and sea salt to taste.
- When ready to serve add in shrimp and scallops and reheat sauce.
- 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!
Diane Buerkle says
Chef Dennis – we made this wonderful recipe last night – it was fantastic!! Restaurant worthy for sure! We followed the recipe very closely only making small changes to accommodate our personal tastes and slicing the eggplant in round slices so we could leave the skin on for cooking. Also, salted the slices both sides and placed on paper towels for 45 minutes to draw out the moisture prior to cooking.
This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thanks so much for sharing!
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed my recipe Diane! And I always say recipes are simply guidelines, I’m glad you adapted it to make it your own
Kimby says
I’m so glad Mama Jeanette encouraged your knack for finding flavor combinations by listening to the food! Terrific advice!
Minnie@thelady8home says
This looks so delicious!! Bookmarking it!!
Candace says
This looks delicious! I love, love, love eggplant AND seafood.
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
This looks so good, Chef! Love the eggplant and seafood pairing!
Betty Ann @Mango_Queen says
This recipe is divine. I’m reading this post at lunch time and I’m drooling. Must bookmark this to try soon. I love eggplant so much and this is right up my alley. Thanks for sharing, Chef Dennis!
Larry says
Looks amazing Dennis as your dishes always do. If I were wealthy, I’d try to hire you away from your school but since I’m not, I’ll just try to replicate some of your food.
Happy Ramblings says
What an interesting mix of flavours and so quick and easy to make! Aubergines are in season here at the moment so I have added this to my list of recipes to try.
RavieNomNoms says
Oh that looks just simply perfect!! YUM!
anna says
i love your seafood! this looks delish! can’t wait to try those eggplant planks…