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Tuesday 27 December 2011

Seafood tortellini pesto mishmash - sausage, basa fillet, shrimp, sweet bell peppers, sweet peas, carmalized onions and mushrooms galore!

Needing a way to use up all of the mushroom stems from all the batches of scallop stuffed mushrooms I made for parties earlier in the week, I rumaged through the fridge and cobbled this easy recipe that uses up odds and ends and random vegetables you have kicking around. Since its the holiday season, we always tend to overeat on the meats and carbs, so this is a nice simple recipe cuz you can throw in 90% vegetables if you want and noone will be the wiser. This recipe makes enough for 4, but you can easily double or halve the recipe. It takes about 40min prep time, mainly b/c I chop veges up slow, had to defrost the fish and shrimp and I took time to take pics.. you can probably toss this all together in about 30min if all your ingreidents are fresh :)
Meeeeeeeeeeaaaaaat! ;D
Meaty Ingredients
-2 sausage links sliced: I had Bavarian in my fridge, but you can use chorizo, your favourite sausage, or whatever you have in your fridge
-1 basa fillet (1/2 a fish) cut into chunks (or any firm flesh fish fillet)
-10-12 large shrimp with shells (cut it almost in half to remove sandtrack guts)


The rest of the Ingredients
-1 medium onion diced
-1 cup of mushrooms (I cut up all the mushroom stems diagonally to use them up)
-small bag of sweet peas
-1 or 2 sweet bell peppers (more if you want more veges
-1 large clove of garlic grated
-2 tablespoons of pesto - I had Oliveri's in my fridge
-granulated garlic: 1 teaspoon each for seasoning fish, and pasta
-1teaspoon of oil each for cooking the basa, shrimp and veges
-1/2 a small package of tortellini
-2 stalks of green onions julienne both white and green parts
-1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)


With all these veges, this recipe is mom approved
Cook the pasta and the meats
1) Cook your tortellini according to directions. While the pasta cooks, clean and cut up all your vegetables. Season the basa with 1 teaspoon of the granulated garlic powder, remove shells and clean the shrimp.
2) On medium-high heat, add 1 teaspoon oil to a non-stick frying pan and swirl to coat the pan. Add the seasoned basa pieces in and sear (flip them occasionally) until they are browned on both sides and cooked through ~4-5min. Dump cooked fish into large serving platter. Clean frying pan.
3) On high heat, add 1 teaspoon oil to a non-stick frying pan and swirl to coat the pan. Add the cleaned shrimp in and sear (flip them occasionally) until they have all changed to a cooked orange on both sides with no traces of gray ~2-3min. Dump cooked shrimp on top of the cooked fish. Add sausages to the pan and cook (flipping occasionally) until nicely browned and cooked through (cooking time depends on type of sausage you're using). Dump cooked sausage with the seafood.


Mishmash of everything before garnish
Cooking all the veges
1) Drain the tortellini cuz by the time the meats are finished cooking, they should be done, and set aside.
2) On medium-high heat, add 1 teaspoon oil to a large non-stick frying pan or wok and swirl to coat. Add veges into the pan with the longest cooking time items going in first and shortest cooking items in last, cooking about 1 min before you add in each additional ingredient: onions, mushrooms, sweet peas, bell peppers. Add in 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic here if you want more garlicky zing. If you want to add in more veges feel free. Longest cooking times - cauliflower, carrots; med cooking times - celery, broccoli crowns, zucchini; short cooking times - herbs. Dump the cooked veges into the large platter holding all the meats, and clean the pan.


... and with the garnish! :D
Putting it all together
1) In a clean non-stick frying pan/wok on medium heat, stir in minced garlic and pesto (quickly as pesto does darken FAST), add in drained tortellini, turn off heat and mix well. Add pesto'ed pasta to everything else and toss well.
2) Garnish with green onions and optional lemon zest. Scoop generous portions, and enjoy!!

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