Pasta Immaculada

For two years now as Jesuit Regents here in Xavier School, my co-regent Aldrie Lim and I have been renovating our vows on the day of the Immaculate Conception (December 8). Since this is our last year (hopefully) as regents in this community I decided to make our dinner a little more special to celebrate the renewal of our commitment to religious life as well as to honor our Lady, “conceived without sin through the merits of Christ’s salvific act.”

We opened a bottle of Xavier Jubilee Wine and had a platter of mixed chorizos and hamones for preprandials. Since our cook’s duty was only until 2:00 p.m, I decided to just order fried chicken from KFC and prepared a simple seafood pasta for the community.

I like to share this recipe that I concocted on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. I must admit that I heavily depended on my intuition when I prepared the pasta so the measurements are rough approximations. I’ll try to do this again and will give you a more “stable” recipe. You may also want to try it and let me know of your suggestions.

Pasta Immaculada

10 medium sized shrimp; cleaned and deveined
6 medium sized squid; cleaned
100 g. lapu-lapu (grouper or any alternative) fillet

5 medium sized tomatoes; diced
6 cloves of garlic; minced.
50 g. parsley; chopped
50 g. olives

6 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup of white wine

½ kg. spaghetti or linguine; precooked al dente

salt and pepper to taste

1. Slice shrimp into half. Cut fish fillet and squid into pieces. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the minced garlic.
3. Saute the garlic, stirring it for about 15-20 seconds. Make sure that the garlic doesn’t turn brown.
4. Add seafood ingredients and saute it until the flesh turns white
5. Pour wine. Put salt and pepper to taste.
6. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until the sauce starts to boil.
7. Add in parsley, tomatoes and olives. Simmer for another 1 or 2 minutes, making sure that the tomatoes retain its chunky texture.
8. Pour over precooked al dente spaghetti or linguine. Allow the the pasta to absorb some of the stock.
9. Remove from heat and serve in a plate. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

This recipe makes 6 - 8 servings.