Grilled Seafood and Vegetables al Cartoccio

It's summer, therefore it's grilling time. I saw this in Food & Wine magazine, and was super excited about cooking up a bunch of seafood. 

The recipe took a good amount of preparation time. You're getting all the seafood prepped (and with oysters, clams and mussels -- it takes a while!) and then all vegetables ready to grill. The recipe says it takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes total -- I think that's pretty close (so about 45 minutes of prep, and 25 minutes cooking).

Grilled broccolini, tomatoes, radishes, onions, carrots and asparagus. Whew!

Getting the "packets" ready

Filled and ready to go!

Finished product!

I thought it turned out delicious. However, it's probably a "once in a while" type dish, since the seafood can be kind of expensive when you purchase it all together. Especially if you have to toss a few of the items ahead of time (i.e. if you can't get the mussels to close up before cooking) or after cooking (i.e. if some of the oysters didn't open up. I couldn't pry some of them open, thought most of them did open on their own). I usually end up buying a few more mussels than they suggest in case I pick up a couple duds (and they are cheaper than clams or oysters, so grabbing a few more can help supplement your dish).

You definitely want some bread to sop up all the awesome liquid that is in the steamed packet. There isn't a ton of "meat" out of the seafood included, but you make it up with a ton of yummy vegetables so you aren't starving within 10 minutes of finishing dinner.