Fennel and Zucchini Seafood Pasta

I’ve learned over the years that when you really miss something and you start to crave it, it often means you haven’t done “that thing” in a long time, or from a food perspective, eaten it in a long time. That’s your body asking you to do something, or eat something. Intuitive eating is a skill. It takes time to master, and continually work at it, but it is beautiful when you can hear the whispers of what your body needs. For this recipe, it wasn’t necessarily the food I wanted, but rather the act of cooking! With a little more busy-than-normal life going on lately in my personal life, I haven’t cooked in a while, and Saturday night called for “I just want to cook!” And we had this! Enjoy any night of the week with your family.

Serves 5

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp Butter, divided
• 15 Shrimp, peeled and deveined (~3 each)
• 20 (~200 g) Scallops (~4 each)
• ½ tsp each Salt and Pepper plus more for seasoning
• 1 Clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp Grapeseed Oil
• 2 Shallots, finely chopped
• 1 Bulb Fennel, thinly sliced
• 2 Zucchini, thinly sliced (mandolin)
• ½ Cup Dry white wine
• 227 grams Macaroni
• ½ Cup Basil, torn
• ½ Fresh Lemon

Directions:

1. Clean and dry the shrimp and scallops. Place on a paper towel for a few minutes. Once dried, remove from paper and sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp of butter in a large fry pan. Add the shrimp and cook for about 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute.
3. Transfer shrimp to a clean plate and add the scallops to a pan, cooking for about 4 minutes with the garlic. Remove to the same plate as the shrimp and cover to keep warm.
4. Heat the grapeseed oil in the same pan. Add the shallots and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the fennel, salt and pepper, and continue to sauté, about 5 to 8 minutes.
5. Add the zucchini, 2 Tbsp of butter, white wine and allow to cook through and blend flavours for about 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. I used a red and white quinoa pasta this time around!
7. Just before the pasta is cooked, add the shrimp, scallops and garlic to the vegetable mixture and stir to combine.
8. Add the pasta to the pan, basil and the juice from ½ of a lemon and stir well to combine all flavours.
9. Enjoy with yours truly with some extra basil or a bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese if you’d like.