Seafood in Tomato Sauce

Brandon golfed on Saturday and came home pleased with himself, which is the desired outcome of golf. The week was a spring week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The recipe of the week was creamy tomato pasta, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. Three of the bags I pulled out this week were dated nine months ago and they were perfect, because labeling is theology in my house. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

Brandon called me at lunch on Tuesday for no particular reason and I knew without him saying so that he was thinking about Grace. Twenty-some years in, I can hear the silences. We have been married a long time. The arithmetic of it is the arithmetic of my whole life. There were years we missed each other in the same room, and there are years we find each other in the silences, and this is one of the latter, and I am old enough now to know that the latter is the achievement and the former was the cost.

The accountant in me keeps a private ledger of how old Grace would be. I do not consult it. It is automatic. I do not write about her every week. I do not avoid her either. She is in the kitchen the way the kitchen is in the kitchen — woven into the structure, not announcing herself, present. The photograph above the stove is the only one of her smiling, and it has watched me batch-prep more freezer meals than I can count, and I have stopped feeling strange about the parasocial relationship I have with a four-month-old who has been gone for years. She is my daughter. The photograph is what I have. I look. I keep cooking.

I'm Michelle. The freezer is full. Talk to you next week.

The creamy tomato pasta got the Sunday batch, but this seafood in tomato sauce is the recipe I reach for when I want the same comfort with a little more depth — something that feels like it has been simmering longer than it has. After a week where Brandon called at lunch just to hear my voice, and the kitchen held its usual quiet company, I wanted a dinner that asked nothing complicated of me and gave back something warm. This one does that. Batch it if you want. Label it if you know what’s good for you.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 lb sea scallops, halved if large
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Crusty bread or cooked pasta, for serving

Instructions

Sauté aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more until fragrant.
Deglaze with wine. Pour in the white wine and stir to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let it simmer for 2–3 minutes until slightly reduced.
Build the sauce. Add the crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes to the pan. Stir in the basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and black pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly.
Add the seafood. Nestle the scallops into the sauce first and cook for 2 minutes, then add the shrimp. Cook for an additional 3–4 minutes, stirring gently, until the shrimp are pink and curled and the scallops are just opaque. Do not overcook.
Finish and serve. Taste and adjust seasoning. Scatter fresh parsley over the top and serve immediately over pasta or alongside crusty bread for soaking.

Nutrition (per serving)

Seafood in Tomato Sauce — The Freezer Is Full and the Week Is Done