Seafood and Saffron Tagliatelle

This is a recipe that we have been trying to get to for a month and found some time today. I'll post the recipe as it is written and then tell you what I did for two. This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's cookbook, The Naked Chef Takes Off.

Serves 4
a good pinch of saffron
1 glass of dry white wine
1 lb. tagliatelle pasta
olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1.5 lb. mixed seafood (fish, scallops, clams, bearded mussels, shrimp, squid)
1 1/3 c. cream
salt and pepper
for garnish only: fennel fronds, parsley or dill

Soak the saffron in the white wine. Cook the tagliatelle in salted boiling water until al dente. Add a little olive oil and the garlic to a frying pan and cook until softened. Add clams and mussels, shake pan around and add white wine/saffron mixture. Bring to a boil, and discard any shellfish that remain closed. Then add rest of seafood and the cream. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, season to taste, add the drained tagliatelle and serve scattered with a few of the garnish suggestions.

This was a fabulous tasting dish. I would like to try it again with actual fresh seafood. We used a good-quality frozen "frutti di mare" (fruits of the sea) mixture (thawed - 1/2lb.) and didn't deal with tracking down good shellfish. I used 250 g. of tagliatelle (roughly 1/2lb.) and only 1/2 c. cream along with a couple spoons of the pasta cooking water. Also, I took the pasta out of the boiling water when there was 2 minutes left on the manufacturers instructions and tossed it with the saffron cream mixture, put a lid on it and let it soak up the broth for the remainder of the cooking time and the pasta came out perfect.