One of the reasons I enjoy cooking is the thrill of experimentation. What if I add a pinch of this and a dab of that?

After watching an episode of “Extra Virgin“, I was craving linguine alle vongole. Trouble was that it was a cold & dark night, I had no linguine, and definitely did not have fresh clams. But I did know the basics on how to make a white wine sauce so let the fun begin!

Going through the pantry and fridge, I had whole wheat thin spaghetti and a bag of frozen mixed seafood (scallops, shrimp, and squid). I let the seafood defrost while the pot of water came to a boil. When cooking the pasta, I started the sauce by sautéing some celery (I also had no parsley so figured celery was close enough…) with garlic in olive oil. I then added in the seafood. By then the pasta was almost done — I saved a cup of the pasta water before draining. I added white wine and some of the pasta water into the sauce pan to deglaze a bit before adding in the pasta to allow it to finish cooking in the sauce. And some pepper and voila! — a jury-rigged pasta dish that not only satisfied the craving, but was good enough to be desired in its own right.