Seafood Pasta and Roasted asparagus salad

Jan volunteers at Children's Mercy Hospital on Friday afternoons and it was too cold for me to play golf, so I did a little cooking 
today.  Here is what our dinner looked like:

I think it is very attractive and it was tasty too.  I had no recipes.  I just improvised but remembered what I did, so I am sharing it with you.  

Seafood Pasta

Ingredients: (serves four)

1 Lb. - thick spaghetti or linguine
1 stick (8 TBSP ) butter
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Shallot - finely diced
6 cloves garlic - finely diced
1 cup dry white wine - I used a good Chardonnay
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
8 fresh sage leaves - finely chopped
Leaves from several sprigs of thyme-finely chopped
1 Lb. Shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 Lb. Mussels, scrubbed 
12 Little-neck clams, scrubbed and soaked in cold water 
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Boil pasta al dente per package directions.  While pasta is cooking, melt the butter over a low flame in a large skillet with a lid.  Add the olive oil to the melted butter.  Saute the garlic and shallot in the garlic and butter until they are tender and translucent.  Add the wine, parsley, sage and thyme  to the pan.  Increase heat to medium. Add clams to the pan and cover. After four or five minutes add the mussels to the pan and cover.  When the mussels and clams just start to open add the shrimp.  Cover and cook until all of the mussels and clams are open and the shrimp are pink and tender.  Do not overcook the seafood !!  Discard any clams or mussels that don't open.  In the meantime, drain the pasta and sprinkle it with a little extra virgin olive oil.  Put a portion of spaghetti in a pasta dish and ladle a generous amount of the seafood and the white wine and butter sauce over the pasta.  Serve with crusty bread and chardonnay.  One thing to remember, when cooking with wine, "If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it".  I never use cooking wine from the grocery store.  When making this dish, I used a cup of the same chardonnay in the sauce that I was serving with the dinner.  

Roasted Asparagus Salad

Ingredients:

I Lb. Fresh asparagus, trimmed
3 mini multi colored peppers - cut into rings 
1 TBSP minced garlic
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
Coarse ground sea salt
4 cups spring green salad mix
1 small jar artichoke hearts
Block of Parmesan Reggiano Cheese to shave
Garlic Expressions Salad Dressing or any vinaigrette

Preparation:

An hour or two prior to serving, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place asparagus in a glass baking dish.  Toss with the minced garlic, the pepper rings and the olive oil.  Roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until asparagus is crisp tender.  Remove from oven and sprinkle lightly with the coarse ground sea salt.  Set aside to cool.  

When ready to serve, put about a cup of greens on each of four salad plates.  Top with several spears of the roasted asparagus and peppers.  Add a few leaves of artichoke heart.  Shave some of the parmesan reggiano over the salad and drizzle with the dressing.  I love the Garlic Expressions salad dressing which is available in most grocery stores, but if you can't find that, just mix up a simple vinaigrette using 2 parts olive oil and one part balsamic vinegar.