Seafood pasta bake (Printable Version)

Tender seafood and pasta in creamy tomato sauce with melted cheese topping.

# What You'll Need:

→ Pasta

01 - 10.5 oz penne or rigatoni

→ Seafood

02 - 10.5 oz mixed seafood (shrimp, mussels, squid, scallops), thawed if frozen

→ Sauce

03 - 2 tbsp olive oil
04 - 1 small onion, finely chopped
05 - 2 garlic cloves, minced
06 - 14 oz canned chopped tomatoes
07 - 2/3 cup heavy cream
08 - 2 tbsp tomato paste
09 - 1 tsp dried oregano
10 - 1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
11 - Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

→ Cheese Topping

12 - 3.5 oz mozzarella, grated
13 - 1.5 oz Parmesan, grated
14 - 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

# How to Make It:

01 - Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a large baking dish.
02 - Boil pasta in salted water, cooking 2 minutes less than package instructions. Drain and set aside.
03 - Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
04 - Stir in chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
05 - Add heavy cream to the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. Adjust seasoning as needed.
06 - Gently fold mixed seafood into the sauce and cook 2–3 minutes until just opaque to avoid overcooking.
07 - Toss cooked pasta with the seafood sauce. Transfer the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.
08 - Evenly sprinkle grated mozzarella and Parmesan over the pasta mixture.
09 - Bake for 18–20 minutes until bubbling and golden on top.
10 - Let rest for 5 minutes before garnishing with chopped fresh parsley and serving.

# Expert Tips:

01 -
  • It feels fancy enough for guests but comes together in under an hour, which means you can actually enjoy your evening instead of fussing in the kitchen.
  • The seafood stays tender and sweet instead of turning rubbery because you add it late, a trick that completely changed my baking game.
  • Everything happens in one dish, so cleanup is mercifully simple and your kitchen doesn't look like a disaster zone.
02 -
  • Don't skip the 2-minute reduction in cooking time for the pasta, because it will keep cooking in the oven and you want it to stay tender, not soft.
  • Seafood goes in at the very end because it cooks so quickly that by the time the sauce is done, the seafood can be barely done instead of rubbery.
03 -
  • Taste the sauce at every stage and adjust seasoning as you go, because by the time you've added seafood and pasta, it's too late to fix a sauce that's under-seasoned.
  • If your mozzarella is packed in liquid, squeeze out as much moisture as possible before grating because excess water makes the top watery instead of crispy and golden.
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