The Best Type Of Pasta To Pair With Seafood

It's hard to find a better combination than sunshine, salt water, seafood, and pasta. The ultimate expression of summer, a delicious plate of seafood pasta can make you feel like you've been teleported to a beachside town in Italy. But are you aware that there's a specific type of pasta that's best paired with seafood?

Pasta is one of those foods that's loved by many. In fact, BBC praises its low price point, convenience, great shelf life, nutritional value, and ability to keep you full. Dress it up or leave it plain, its popularity is also rooted in its versatility. The perfect vessel for just about any ingredient, pasta works exceptionally well with seafood as it adds extra protein and beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, explains Share the Pasta. 

The best bowls of crustacean-laden pasta start with the freshest fish available. If you can't snag the catch-of-the day, frozen seafood also works — just make sure it's fully thawed. After properly cleaning (and discarding any dead mollusks), MasterClass advises salting your sauce sparingly as shellfish can release saltwater as they steam. Given that most seafood also cooks fairly quickly, it's wise to keep an eye on the time so as not to overcook.

There are lots of pasta varieties — like, a lot. With about 350 different types of pasta, Italy Magazine notes that this list is even larger if you count regional variations. Long, short, tube, soup, or stuffed, there's uniquely shaped pasta for any and every occasion. But, while pasta shape isn't likely to affect taste, it will create a varied eating experience. 

Long and light, Taste of Home ranks linguine as the best type of pasta to pair with seafood. Since seafood pastas are often made with fresher, thinner pasta sauces, long pasta like linguine is a great choice to catch ingredients like mussels or clams with each twirl. 

Because linguine has origins in the coastal Italian region of Liguria where seafood is abundant, Assaggio notes that linguine it isn't hard to see why muscles, clams, and shrimp are often added to hand-made linguine in garlic and oil or fresh tomato sauces — that is, when linguine isn't tossed with another regional favorites like pesto.