This seafood salad comes from Marie, of the Proud Italian Cook blog, who I’ve followed for years! She was born into an Italian American family, and began blogging in 2007. “I cook, photograph and write all content here, it’s my life through food!”
This seafood salad is classically served on Christmas Eve, which is how I first heard about it. Can you imagine something more lovely than this on the table?!
The salad originates from Puglia, more specifically, Bari on the coast, where interestingly enough the well known Spaghetti all’Assassina originates.
Marie assures that you don’t need to wait until Christmas Eve to indulge. This is definitely a perfect summer salad, especially when one has access to fresh seafood.
This salad takes a bit of preparation time because the seafood varieties are cooked separately so as to prepare them properly. Make sure you have enough guests at your table to take advantage of this fabulous salad.
Italian Seafood Salad
1 lb. bay scallops, I sliced mine in half horizontally
1 lb. shrimp, sliced in half for a nice presentation
1 lb. calamari with tubes and tentacles (I used cuttlefish)
4 small lobster tails
2 fennel bulbs sliced thin
1/2 large red onion, diced small
3 whole celery stalks with leaves, chopped in small slices
Handful of pitted Castelvetrano olives or any of your favorite
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Lemon slices from one lemon
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Chopped parsley
Cayenne chile pepper flakes, to taste
First prepare the poaching liquid by adding water to a medium stock pot, with a good splash of white wine, 2 bay leaves, 1 of the 4 cloves of crushed garlic, salt, pepper and 3 lemon slices.
Bring the liquid to a boil then place seafood in one at a time. Bay scallops about 2 minutes, taste one to make sure, calamari, one or two minutes, shrimp until they turn pink and the lobster three to five minutes depending on the size; they will turn pink and curl up.
My rule of thumb for lobster tails is one minute per ounce weight.
Use a spider strainer to take them out of the liquid then place directly into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. The seafood should be tender and not overcooked. Drain onto a paper towel lined baking sheet.
When seafood is all cooked, chop up all your veggies and place into a big bowl, along with the olives.
Add the prepared seafood to the large bowl.
In a covered jar, shake together a ratio of 1:1 lemon juice and olive oil, with a little Dijon mustard, plus salt and pepper to taste. This is where I added the remaining minced garlic.
Shake well.
Drizzle over your salad coating all the seafood and tossing so the garlic and veggies get incorporated.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley, cayenne pepper flakes, and taste for seasoning. Spoon it into a pretty platter, add some lemon slices, more parsley, and a drizzle of olive oil all over.
Cover and let it sit in fridge for at least a few hours or overnight. Let it warm up a bit before serving. Don’t serve at room temperature; it needs to be cold.
I could make this salad for every holiday! It’s so so good.