I actually skipped the butter in the crust, mainly because Ritz already has fat in it.

I was worried about the egg yolks, but the method of adding them specified above makes a successful sauce and you don't get a cooked egg mess if you are careful.

Butter, sherry and lemon juice is the beginnings of a beurre blanc. Here's a great demo of how to make a modified buerre blanc that you can put on any seafood:

http://video.about.com/frenchfood/Beurre-Blanc.htm

Awesome! That's be great over scallops or lobster, crab or whatever.

I made the richer sauce because I needed it to be much thicker; I wanted more of a filling.

I make a lighter crustless scallop "pie" (more like a casserole, 'cuz I'm lazy) with just Ritz cracker crumbs, butter, sherry, lemon juice, paprika, and parsley. (Sometimes a little Bay seasoning instead of paprika, but I'm on the fence with that one.)

The egg yolks and flour are a great addition that I honestly hadn't considered. They'd make a richer, more satisfying dish.

I generally avoid cheese with seafood, though - I think the taste of the cheese overwhelms the seafood. But I bet a tiny bit of parmesan is a nice enhancement.

Sage could be the culprit in the Italian mix. I like sage with meat, but I'm not crazy about it in anything where there's a lot of tomato. However, I think there's something else in there too, and I suspect it's the vaguely-named "savory."

I'm supposing you didn't mean you eat an actual handful of parmesan. 'Cause that would be quite a lot compared to what I sprinkle on. OTOH, at restaurants I've seen people pile the stuff high. i didn't used to like the stuff, but now I do, because it adds so much flavor though you can use so little of it.

Lemon juice or cider vinegar are good salt alternatives, too. So is tabasco.
I had no idea there was sodium in parmesan, though I suppose I should have guessed by the taste. The cheese I add is usually provolone or mozzarella with only a handful of parmesan or romano (I think what I actually have is a mix of both) on top because it seems wrong to leave it out entirely.

I don't use a mixed Italian seasoning because there's something in that mix (the particular one I have, prolly McCormick) that I'm not crazy about. It might be the herb called "savory," but without isolating it I can't be sure. (Strangely enough, I DO like that Italian seasoning when I make a Mexican-style pork dish... go figure.) So, instead I just add a lot of thyme and oregano.

I start everything with a mirepoix, always have, except when using the crock pot. Then, I just throw celery, carrot, and onion in raw, which admittedly isn't quite the same, but isn't terribly different either. But I haven't been using the crock pot at all these days, because I'm afraid things will get grossly overcooked and even scorchy. Maybe that's not an issue with soups, though. I just hate leaving it on, unattended, for 11+ hours a day!

Plus, I have the pressure cooker, which does a lot of the long-term stuff pretty fast. That sometimes works out better for my schedule now.

I cook the pasta separate, mainly because I like my pasty al dente; I do not like floppy pasta in my soup. But you could throw any pasta in there near the end, as long as you made sure there was enough liquid.

I just remembered, I threw a couple of teaspoons of red pepper flakes in it, too. One would have been enough, but I liked the spiciness. Especially because we were going easy on the sodium.

Then I out parmesan cheese on when I served it, which give you back your sodium, I guess!

Sometimes I add leftover spaghetti (with sauce) and make it into a casserole, adding stale bread and baking it with cheese on top.

Also, I added a couple of tablespoons of ketchup to add some tang and some flour to thicken.

It came out quite good. Eventually I will make this into my own version of a minestrone-type soup. IMHO it needed more beans and probably some corn. But it was quite excellent. We served it over gemelli.

Sometimes, I prefer the rich, slightly nutty flavor of roasted garlic. But the main thing is to avoid burning garlic. It turns bitter and can be quite nasty.

Covering instead of parboiling was a suggestion from Cook's Illustrated.

The only major difference is that I toss in the garlic halfway through the cooking, so it gets cooked too.

"Tantrum" is the perfect word for what is going on in this country. The Reps are still so pissed that they didn't have a viable candidate to vote for, that they will stop at nothing to ensure that Obama doesn't get a second term. Their only option was to vote for a cranky old man completely out of touch with this century and his bubble-headed running mate, or an intelligent, well-spoken (read: uppity) Black man - and boy, what a choice THAT was!

Obabam could fart rainbows and unicorns and still no one would be happy....

This whole situation makes me want to move to another country - one where health care, education, and helping those in need is a priority.