Quick & Cheap Seafood Pasta

Sometimes you just don't have time to be in the kitchen for an hour or you've got hungry mouths not interested in how long the marinade takes. We recently had one of those nights. Sometimes we'll get the frozen bag pasta dinners in the freezer section but this recipe turned out to be just as fast and it's cheaper!

We got the frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's. I'm not sure if you could find this other places. If not, you can certainly make your own mix or just use shrimp.

Here's a really great tip: when cooking red sauce and pasta. Cook your pasta for about 5 minutes in salted boiling water. Then strain it and dump the pasta into the sauce pan for another few minutes to finish the cooking process. This really, really gives the pasta so much flavor!

Servings: 2
From stove to table: 15 min

• Linguini
• 1/2 bag of frozen seafood mix (trader joes) or 12-16 shrimp
• 1/2 a jar of Marinara Sauce - we used world classic on sale for $2.39 a jar
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3-4 leaves of fresh basil
• Pecorino Romano or Parm, to top
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring water for pasta to a boil.

Prepare the seafood mix as instructed on the package or saute shrimp in a large saute pan. When seafood is almost cooked but not quite, add the marinara sauce to the pan with the red pepper flakes, 1/2 of the basil and salt and pepper.

Add pasta and salt to water when water begins boiling. Lower temp to a low boil. Cook for 5 minutes in salty water. Strain and add pasta to the saute pan. Coat pasta with sauce and simmer until pasta is at desired tenderness.

Serve hot with the other 1/2 of the basil and cheese.