Speedy, Easy, Economical, Smart and Satisfying

Sue Li’s ginger-scallion stir-fried shrimp.Credit…Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li.

My husband’s current favorite dinner category is “spicy tomato seafood.” This, as you may well know, is a generous category with delicious offerings: puttanesca, bouillabaisse (with added chile flakes) and all manner of seafood stews. It doesn’t hurt, either, that spicy tomato seafood makes good use of pantry and freezer staples: canned tomatoes, garlic, chile flakes or pastes, canned fishes or frozen goodies from the sea.

A couple of weeks ago I threw together a spicy shrimp pasta situation using defrosted shell-on shrimp, Calabrian chile paste and squid-ink spaghetti I had forgotten I had, and we were instantly transported to some gorgeous part of the Italian coast we’ve never been to.