Marvellous marinara

As a treat, I sometimes splurge and make a marinara for dinner. The kids really love it, the little seafood fiends. When I make it without the boys around, I really go all out and as a result we have nicknamed it the "Million Dollar Marinara", but with them around we are much more limited with the seafood we can include in this delicacy. We have a brilliant fish monger so we can always be guaranteed the freshest and finest seafood and he will always get in anything we want, if it is seasonally available of course. Always be very wary when buying seafood if you or someone in the family has food sensitivities as a lot of suppliers freeze their produce which causes the levels of natural chemicals, like amines, to increase, besides, it doesn't taste as good.

For those of you local to the South/South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, we go to "Fish Tales" in Aspendale Gardens Shopping Centre, Narelle Drive, Aspendale Gardens. If you go, tell them Schana sent you.

200g scallops with the roe removed (a good fishmonger will do this for you)
1 octopus (about 400g) or 2 squid tubes, cut into bite sized pieces (make sure they haven't been frozen as they often are)
2 kg fresh mussels
2 large shallots (not spring onions) finely diced
1 bulb of garlic finely chopped
2 tbsp of finely chopped parsley
1/2 tsp citric acid
pinch of salt
4 tbsp oil
500 g gluten free pasta

In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Once smoking hot, throw in the cleaned mussels and cover with a lid. Shake the pot occasionally and cook until the mussels just open then remove from the heat immediately. Allow to cool slightly then pick all the meat out of the shells and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Just before the water reaches boiling point, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a fry pan. Add the shallots and sautee until translucent. At this point, add about a teaspoon of salt and the pasta to the boiling water and cook as per the packet instructions. Add the garlic and octopus to shallots and cook until opaque then add the scallops. If using squid, cook for just a minute before adding the scallops. Cook the scallops until they are only just opaque. Stir through the parsley, citric acid and salt. Remove from heat.

Drain the pasta and toss through the sauce.