Farfalle with seafood and wine sauce

There are days when you need just that little extra treat. For me today was such a day. There were just too many things that went wrong today....

Most times when I have such a day I skip dinner and replace it with a big portion of ice cream. My friends always tease me for it. Honestly I think ice cream just cools down your temper when you are upset. But today I didn't feel like ice cream. I wanted some nice food for the soul.

For me that definitely means some variety of pasta or some food from my childhood. Today I decided on pasta. Farfalle to be specific as there will be lots of sauce. Penne would also be a good choice. But I don't recommend pasta like Spaghetti of Tagliatelle for such a liquid sauce. I don't call it Italian food because for that there is way too much sauce in this recipe. I call it a Frida special.

The wine I use in this recipe is a Shiraz Rosé. If you don't get it or don't like it you can any dry rosé or white wine.

For the Farfalle I put a big pot of salted water on the stove and bring it to boil. Once it boils I add 250g Farfalle and cook them al dente.

In a small pot I cook 100g peas together with 100g broccoli and 3 medium carrots, both cut into pieces in little plain water.

In the meantime I finely chop 1 medium onion and 2 cloves garlic. In a deep pan I melt 30g butter and fry the onion and garlic in it until they start turning brown. I cut 100g mushrooms into halves or quarters and add them to the onions. I fry them for about 5 minutes. I keep the mushrooms and onions in a small bowl aside.

Now I pour 200ml wine into the pan an bring it slowly to a simmer. In the meantime I drain the boiled vegetables. Make sure you collect the liquid from the vegetables. I measure 200ml of the vegetable water and add each 100ml sour cream and 100ml fresh cream to it. Into this mixture I stir 2 tablespoons cornstarch. I add the mixture to the wine and heat it slowly stirring constantly. I add salt, white pepper and nutmeg to the sauce.

I reduce the heat to the minimum and add 300g bekti steak, cut into 2cm dices, along with 8 peeled and cleaned jumbo prawns to the sauce. I let it sit for 5 minutes for the fish and prawns to be cooked. Now I carefully stir in the mushrooms, onions and other vegetables. I taste it and add if necessary a little bit more pepper, salt and nutmeg.

I drain the pasta and place it in 4 deep plates. I pour a generous helping of the fish sauce on top of it. Along with the Farfalle I serve the rest of the wine.... or a bit more...

This recipe is for four portions. Experience showed me that in reality it ends up to be for 2-3 portions.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen.

Love

Carola