Pasta ai Frutti di Mare Recipe | How to Make Italian Seafood Pasta

“Frutti di Mare” literally means “fruit of the sea,” so this pasta is unsurprisingly made with a flexible mix of seafood. There’s no one way to make it, and you can adapt the choice of seafood to match your tastes and what you have on hand. However, there is one major pitfall that many cooks fall into when attempting this deceptively simple recipe, which here we will teach you to avoid.

The Correct Ingredients for Frutti di Mare

The most classic seafood elements you’ll find in a plate of frutti di mare are:

• Clams (vongole)
• Shrimp (gamberi)
• Squid (calamari)
• Mussels (cozze)

These can be adapted to your taste or what you have available. For instance, if you can’t find clams you can simply skip them and you’ll still have a great plate of pasta. Want to incorporate scallops or baby octopus? Go for it!

The ingredient amounts shown below reflect a good mix of seafood, but please don’t take any measurement as gospel. There have never been two plates of frutti di mare that are exactly the same.

Which Pasta to Use for Frutti di Mare

Perhaps the most classic choice is spaghetti, although you’ll want to make sure you use a really thick spaghetti—no angel hair. Spaghetti is great for wrapping around all the chunky seafood. If you want to try something a little different, try the big tubes of paccheri pasta.

How to Make Seafood Pasta, Not “Pasta with Seafood”

The biggest mistake we see people making when attempting pasta ai frutti di mare is not properly cooking the sauce and pasta together. While we advocate this basic method for the vast majority of pasta dishes, here it is crucial. Fail this part, and you will have bland white spaghetti with some mussels and squid floating around. What we want is a silky, creamy sauce with lots of seafood flavor that coats the pasta, clings to it, and is even absorbed by it. You should be able to remove the fish and have the pasta still be super delicious and flavorful.

To do this, you need to boil your pasta for about three minutes less than would be required to reach perfect “al dente” texture. At that point you transfer the undercooked pasta into the sauce and finish cooking the two together while mixing vigorously. This gives the pasta time to absorb the sauce, and also time to release starch which will make the sauce creamy.

Watch the Pasta Grammar Video

Pasta ai Frutta di Mare Recipe

Makes: 2 to 3 servings

Cook Time: 30 to 40 minutes

For this recipe, you will need:

• 5.5 ounces (150 grams) fresh clams (these should be very small varieties, such as littleneck or Manila)
• About 20 fresh mussels
• 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 11.5 ounces (325 grams) calamari, cut into rings
• 5.5 ounces (150 grams) small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup (240 milliliters) white wine
• Fresh black pepper
• 10 to 15 cherry tomatoes, halved or cut into quarters
• Salt
• 6.5 ounces (185 grams) spaghetti or paccheri pasta
• Chopped fresh parsley, for topping

Prep the clams and mussels to remove sand and sediment: place the clams in a small pot over high heat, covered. Let them self-steam for a few minutes until all of the clams have opened and released their water. If any clams do not open, discard them as they aren’t good to eat. Transfer the clams into a bowl. Reserve the clam water in the pot for later.

Repeat to steam and open the mussels in the same manner, reserving the water they release as well. At this point, you can remove and discard the shells from the clams and mussels. Many people like to keep some of them in the shells for aesthetic purposes, which you’re welcome to do.

Put a large pot of water on to boil. While the water comes up to temperature, begin cooking the sauce.

In a large pan, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat. When the garlic starts to sizzle, add the clams, mussels, calamari, and shrimp. Sauté the seafood for just a minute, then add the white wine. Reduce the heat to medium-low and bring it to a gentle simmer.

After a few minutes, when the smell of alcohol has dissipated, season the sauce with a pinch of black pepper and add the clam and mussel water from earlier by filtering it through a fine mesh sieve. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt (go easy, because the seafood is already salty).

Continue to simmer and stir the sauce until the tomatoes have softened slightly. Turn off the heat and let the sauce rest while the pasta cooks. Remove and discard the garlic clove.

When the water comes to a rolling boil, salt it generously and add the spaghetti. Cook it for two to three minutes less than the recommended al dente cook time on the package.

Using tongs or a spaghetti fork (or a slotted ladle if using paccheri), transfer the cooked pasta to the sauce and add a few spoonfuls of pasta water to the pan. Stir the pasta and sauce together over medium heat until the pasta is al dente to your taste and the sauce has thickened. If the sauce thickens too quickly and the pasta needs more time to cook, add a little more pasta water as needed.

Serve immediately, topped with chopped parsley.

Buon appetito!