Calamari and Seafood Pasta at Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California by Ruth Paget
Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California really does sit on the docks with coolers used to store fish in during the trip from the ocean to shore. The restaurant’s warm and cozy interior sets the tone for a sumptuous Italian seafood meal.
On the night my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I went for dinner, I started with lightly fried calamari cone-shaped bodies and tentacles with horseradish heavy cocktail sauce. The octopus bodies tasted of briny saltwater. I loved every bite.
Laurent ate six Morrro Bay oysters that he said reminded him of Oléron oysters in Charentes-Maritime, France. Oléron oysters have a less salty taste and are clearer than other oysters. If you like raw oysters, they are a perfect winter appetizer. Florence ate a creamy clam chowder as her starter and said she would be back for more.
Laurent and I ordered seafood pasta in Alfredo sauce that came with sliced scallops, whole sautéed shrimp, and an entire Pacific cod fillet that was chopped into large chunks. The Alfredo sauce was thick and creamy with loads of Parmesan, white wine for flavor, and a little garlic. The portion was large. We both ate every bit of our delicious iodine- and selenium-rich winter supper.
Florence ordered Pacific cod fish and chips and ate the garlic bread topped with melted Parmesan that came with our pasta meals.
The photos (forthcoming) we took of our meal show our sumptuous Italian seafood dinner in all its glory. If you want to stroll along the oceanfront after dinner like the Italians, it is easy to do. You can even check out seafood companies located dockside.
Tognazinni’s Dockside Restaurant is a perfect spot for seafood lovers and those who believe in the therapeutic benefits of a winter shellfish meal.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
