Marinara Merriment

My assistant, Ira, is resigning.  As phase 1 of my ‘send-off program’ for her, I promised her I would make a special pasta dish for her—marinara pasta.  Marinara comes from the root word “mar”, meaning sea.  So, you guess it right, marinara pasta is seafood pasta.  

I did not want to stick by the book, I made my original recipe and integrated new ingredients to the usual marinara pasta served in Italian restaurants.  I’ll bet my pinky finger if you don’t love my variation of this pasta dish!

I will provide you with things to adapt from now on for your marinara pasta, with a brief history.  You have to bear with me, I’m a storyteller since birth.

Bye Sun Dried Tomatoes, Hello Pan-Fried Tomatoes!

Instead of sun-dried tomatoes, use pan-fried tomatoes.  Not only it is healthier (did you know that frying tomatoes releases more lycopene?), it also tastes great!   

Pan-fried tomatoes

Before, I didn’t know that tomatoes could be fried.  I only know that it is eaten raw.  Eversince I was in grade school, my mom had always told me to eat raw fresh tomatoes to make my skin smooth.  So, for an exaggerated estimate, I think I have eaten a hectare-filled of tomatoes since the first time my mom advised me to eat that red veggie-fruit thingy. 

My idea of fried tomatoes started with that movie, Fried Green Tomatoes.  But I did not get my first taste of fried tomatoes until I met the “lola” (granny) of Eris,, another good friend of mine for the longest time.    Eris’ lola (God bless her soul...) would fry whole tomatoes as side dish for “Tinapang Bangus” (smoked milk fish).  It was such a good dish combination, I love it everytime Eris brings Tinapang Bangus and fried tomatoes for lunch in the office.   

What triggered a tomato eureka? 

One day, I ran out of sun-dried tomatoes while cooking spaghettini, an “aha!” suddenly came to my mind.  The inspiration of the fried tomatoes of Eris’ lola!  But instead of frying whole tomatoes, I cut the tomatoes into quarters, dunk them in the hot oil and waited until they look beautifully fried in red-orange oil.   And the rest is history.

How to make pan-fried tomatoes? 

For every 500 grams pasta noodles, choose 8 medium size red-orange tomatoes, then slice into chunks.  If you want chunkier tomatoes, slice the tomatoes into quarters.  Pour 4 tablespoons vegetable  oil in the pan.  It is better to use traditional copper pan as it sears the tomato skin and gives that hickory-like flavor to the fried tomatoes.  This result is not obtained using non-stick or Teflon pan.  So grab that old reliable copper pan of your mom or grandma!   Fry the tomatoes over medium heat and wait until the tomato juices are released and the oil turns red-orange.  This is the point that the tomato meat looks pitted and almost separates from the skin.  Sprinkle some ground basil to the mixture.  Continue frying until the mixture look thick and redder.  Remove from heat, transfer tomatoes and oil to a bowl.  Set aside.

Surprise, surprise!  

Honey bacon caramelizing in the pan

Bacon in seafood pasta?  Am I kidding?  Nope!  So, when did that happen?  Well, it happened just now, when I decided to break the monotony of seafood.  Nothing is impossible when you decide that something is possible,  Pasta dish is no exception.  It's my way of making marinara pasta appeal to the meat lovers.  And also it's my way of giving the whims of the seafood lovers.








Tips for cooking pasta noodles

Good pasta sauce is useless if the noodles are rubbery or soggy.   So, remember my cardinal rules when cooking pasta noodles, believe me, they work!

Use large casserole, water level should fill about 80% of the casserole, add 1 tbsp salt and 2 tbsp cooking oil to the water and let it boil.

Add the pasta noodles when the water has boiled for 3-4 minutes.  Cook al dente, pasta noodle should be firm to the bite.  Bite a noodle every 2 minutes after the specified cooking time in the package had elapsed.  Pasta doesn’t cook exactly as the package says, you have to bite the noodles to test for firmness.

Do not wash your pasta under running tap water.  It will lose its taste and will make it difficult for the sauce to adhere to the noodles.  Instead, add tap water just enough to stop the cooking process.  Remove the pasta from the water.

Now, get ready for a marinara pasta feast!

Maffet's Meaty Marinara Pasta

500 g San Remo Spaghetti, cooked al dente

300 g frozen Seafood Mix (white squid, dark squid, squid ball, crabstick, crabmeat, scallops, shrimps) thawed; you may add mussels if you want but get the canned variety instead of fresh from the shell

220 g honey bacon, cut into bite size pieces

1 large head of garlic, peeled and minced

2 medium red onion, chopped

1 medium bowl of pan-fried tomatoes (prepared ahead)
15 pieces black olives, cut into rings

2  250 g pouch Hunt's Mushrooms Spaghetti Sauce

Olive oil, for sautéing

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for garnishing

Ground basil

Porcini Mushrooms Mill

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp Pepper

1 ½ tsp Salt

Dash of Monosodium glutamate (optional)

100 g mild goat cheese, coarsely crumbled 

Tomatoes ready for frying, seafood mix, bacon, olive oil, ground basil, garlic and onions

Hunt's mushroom spaghetti sauce, porcini mushrooms mill and ground basil

The spaghetti noodles with friendly herbs and garnish

Mild goat cheese

In the same pan that fried the tomatoes, stir-fry the bacon slices until the fats melt and release their own oil. Wait until the sides of the bacon slices caramelize.  Take out the bacon from the pan.  Set aside.

Do not remove bacon oil from the pan.  Add 3 tablespoons olive oil in the pan and wait until hot.  Saute the garlic and onions at the same time until the onions look wilted and transparent.  Stir-fry the seafoods for 10 minutes or until the squid is tender.  Stir in the fried bacon slices and blend the flavor for 3 minutes.  The meat and seafood blend will now produce a very appetizing smell... Hmmm... 

Seafood and bacon blend

Pour in the pan-fried tomatoes and the red-orange oil.  Followed by the black olives.  Continue stir-frying.  Sprinkle porcini mushroom bits from the mill.  Rotate the mill 6 times to dispense just the right amount of porcini mushrooms.  Stir-fry everything.  Pour the Hunt's Mushrooms Spaghetti Sauce.  Sprinkle some ground basil.  Put the brown sugar.  Stir until everything is well blended.  Season mixture with salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate.  Garnish with 3 swirls of extra virgin olive oil.  Simmer for 2 minutes. Stir well then remove from heat.

Pour the meaty marinara sauce over cooked pasta noodles.  Top with coarsely crumbled mild goat cheese.

The meaty marinara pasta

An aerial view of the meaty marinara pasta :)

There's one thing I realized while cooking meaty marinara pasta-- it's difficult to be a chef and photographer at the same time!  I had to have good reflexes in slicing, cutting, tossing and stirring the food while finding the right angle for photos, without dropping my camera or staining it with pasta sauce.  But I did not mind.  I did not feel tired at all.  I was smiling and grinning all the time.  Because I wanted to feed my loved ones and friends with something really goood!  :)


My meaty marinara pasta was a hit at home for an almost midnight snack treat, good thing I was able to set aside 3 lunch boxes that I would bring to the office the next day.  We had it for lunch in our Global City office.  Ira says my meaty marinara pasta tastes good!.  My other 2 colleagues in Global City, Monet and Olive, also say so.  They had it for late snack, I hope I made them a little ‘happy’ and de-stressed before they went home.  

Probably the people who had a taste of my meaty marinara were saying, “Mmmmm”… translated as, “My! my! more meaty marinara!”. 

Here's more.....

and more....

:)