Frutti di Mare Marinati #VigiliaDiNatale #FishFridayFoodies

I had initially planned to share a recipe for baby octopus ceviche appetizer for the Fish Friday Foodies' December event that's coming up this week. But then I decided to save the baby octopus for the salad course and thought I'd make an easy appetizer of marinated seafood with capers, artichoke hearts, and roasted peppers. Che squisito!

Frutti di Mare Marinati is a simple dish of seafood "cooked" by the acid in lemons and tossed with some already prepared veggies. It's so easy, but it requires incredibly fresh ingredients. I usually ask my fish monger which is the best choice for ceviche that day. On the day I made this, he offered me big, beautiful prawns, some scallops, and petrale sole. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound prawns, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
• 1/4 pound scallops, thinly sliced
• 1/4 C petrale sole, cut into 1 to 2" pieces
• 6 to 8 fresh lemons, juiced (I used Meyer lemons from a tree in my mom's yard) + more for serving
• 12 ounces quartered, marinated artichoke hearts 
• 6 ounces marinated roasted red peppers 
• 2 T capers
• 2 T sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
• freshly ground salt, to taste
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 to 3 T thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
• 1 to 2 T olive oil
• kale leaf for garnish, optional

Procedure
Place the raw seafood pieces in a glass dish and cover them with lemon juice. The seafood should be completely covered by juice.

Cover the dish and place it in the refrigerator. Let the seafood marinate or "cook" in the lemon juice for at least 4 hours; I left mine for about 8 hours.

Once the seafood is "cooked" in the juices, drain the lemon juice, but reserve 2 T of the juice. Place the seafood into a large mixing bowl and add in the artichoke hearts, roasted pepper, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh basil. Add in olive oil and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or return to the refrigerator until ready to serve.