Convection Grilled Seafood Pasta with Shrimp, Salmon, and Linguica Sausage

Grilled seafood pasta is a great “fast” pasta meal, there is very little prep involved, and the seafood cooks in less time than it takes to boil the pasta and heat the sauce. This recipe includes oven-broiled shrimp, mixed with cubed salmon, scallops, and chopped linguica sausage. If you don’t care to add sausage then mushrooms or broccoli florets would make a nice addition.

Grilled Seafood Pasta

Why Does My Oven Have a Broil and a Convection Broil Mode?

If your oven has a Convection Broil and Broil mode you may wonder which mode will be best to use for this recipe. Broiling with Convection is ideal for broiling thicker cuts of meat, poultry, or fish as the circulating heat will evenly cook the food and help offset the drying effect of the powerful direct heat from the Broil element.

The Broil mode is ideal for cooking small quick-cooking cuts of meat, seafood, and vegetables as the drier heat is perfect for foods that have a higher water content, especially when broiling a combination of seafood as in this recipe.

Tips for Safe Oven Broiling

When it comes to broiling, be sure to arrange the oven racks before you turn on the oven so that you have a rack placed close to the top of the oven. Because broiling is done at high temperatures for a short period of time, heating in this mode is usually fairly accelerated, so a long preheat time is not necessary. After all, you are not heating the whole oven you are just bringing the heating element to temperature, so it can sear the food you place in the oven.

If you have a gas oven with a gas infra-red broiler you can place the seafood in the oven as soon as the broil element has ignited because it will be cranking out heat immediately.

Remember the oven door must stay closed when you are broiling, so the heat doesn’t damage the oven electronics. Even if you have a gas oven with no electronics, keeping the door closed is recommended. If you are concerned about smoke or vapors escaping into the room when you open the oven door then turn on your overhead ventilation before you turn on the oven to keep the kitchen air clean.

For safety when you are broiling, be sure to designate a landing space for the hot pan when it comes out of the oven.

Easy Grilled Seafood Pasta

This entire recipe can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. All you have to do is boil the water for the pasta and cook it as directed, heat the oven, and broil the seafood. The pasta can be tossed with a sauce or with some olive oil and topped with broiled seafood. If you are lining the pan with foil for easy clean-up it’s recommended to put the foil shiny side down.

Some freshly grated Parmesan and a garnish of chopped parsley will add the final flourish.

If you love the idea of slowly cooking corned beef to enjoy with steamed potatoes, carrots, and cabbage or slice for hot sandwiches, or to make a great corned beef hash then check out my next post and learn how to cook corned beef to perfection in your Steam oven.

Larissa, Your Convection Enthusiast