Joe Bastianich Says This Is The Biggest Seafood Pasta Mistake To Avoid

If you’re making seafood pasta, this dish, like any one of our 11 delicious shrimp pasta recipes, be sure to follow the advice from Joe Bastianich first. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Bastianich reveals the biggest seafood pasta mistake to avoid: Not properly emulsifying the sauce. He explains, “If the sauce is not emulsified, if there’s not enough starch, if, like in a linguini and clams, it’s too watery. It’s a very delicate balancing act [where] you need to know what you’re doing.” See, the last thing you want is a soupy seafood pasta with a runny sauce when you were expecting to make a rich buttery or creamy one.

One way to ensure there’s enough starch in your pasta sauce is to reserve and use pasta cooking water. The starch in this water comes from the cooked pasta and will help bind the sauce you’re making, which in turn will help the sauce cling beautifully to the pasta, versus running off. Using pasta cooking water to make sauces is the key to making at least 12 cream-based sauces, all ones you should know about, according to another chef.

In his interview with Mashed, Bastianich adds, “Seafood pastas are one of my favorite things to eat, for sure.” So, you know he takes not making mistakes while cooking seafood pasta quite seriously.

Read more: 8 Canned Pastas, Ranked Worst To Best

There are easy ways to thicken seafood pasta sauce

Seafood pasta dish, grated cheese, herbs on plate – Luchezar/Getty Images

If you still find your homemade seafood pasta too runny and soupy, despite having used reserved pasta cooking water, fret not. There are ways to salvage your dish and still impress Bastianich.

For example, check your pantry to see if you have semolina flour, which you can add to the pasta cooking water to help thicken it. A dash of semolina flour is the secret to luxuriously creamy pasta. Or, try adding grated Parmesan cheese to the seafood pasta dish as it’s cooking to help thicken and emulsify the sauce, as cheese has cream and fats. As such, adding a splash of heavy cream or cold butter to the pasta dish while it’s still cooking can help thicken the sauce as well.

If you’re making seafood pasta, be sure to adhere to Bastianich’s tips to avoid making a mistake. And, check out our delicious seafood pasta recipes for ideas, including our sweet and spicy seafood pasta recipe.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.