The original fast food, pasta is one of the quickest, easiest meals to whip up - on the table from whoa to go, in less time than it takes for a pizza delivery to arrive.

With a few pantry staples and some fresh herbs from the garden or window box, virtually any seafood species can be made into a delicious, protein-rich pasta dish.

Here are a few of our favourite recipes for you to cosy up with this winter:

Spanner Crab Spaghettini with Lemon, Herbs and Chilli

This dish is quicker – and tastier – than take away. Increase, or decrease, the amount of chilli, capers or lemon to suit your taste. The key to this recipe is to have everything ready to go, as it all comes together at the very end.

Pick the meat from cooked Mud Crab, Blue Swimmer Crab or Spanner Crab, if you’re confident handling crustaceans. Alternatively, good quality frozen Australian crab meat is readily available these days; we use Ceas crab meat from Rockliff Seafoods in the School, which is already picked and can be purchased in small 100g pouches.

Recipe here.

Fettucine with Balmain Bugs

This recipe is inspired by a dish Stefano Manfredi cooked with yabbies at Manta in Woolloomooloo, and will work equally well with any crustacean – prawns, scampi, marron, bugs… The options are endless. For the best results, use pasta made with eggs (all’uovo).

Written recipe here… Or watch a video version here!

Tom Walton’s Green Goddess Pasta Salad

This light recipe is such a winner for when you need a boost of goodness and nutrition… And let’s be honest, we all need that in the colder months.

Recipe here.

Cheat’s Prawn Ravioli

We might have had the time to make fresh pasta during lockdown, but not many of us have that time now! While certainly not traditional, egg wonton wrappers are a great cheat way of making a quick ravioli.

You could also use crab, bug, or lobster meat in these, if you want to get really fancy.

Written recipe here… Or watch a video version here!