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Seafood Carbonara

I’m a big fan of Rachael Ray’s recipes. Her food is always quick (her claim to fame is her plethora of 30-minute meals) and relatively easy, if you’re a good multi-tasker. But her recipes call for so many ingredients, they’re usually out of a college student’s budget. Goat cheese? Saffron? Pancetta? Fresh tarragon? No thanks. I managed to find one recipe in her book, “30-Minute Meals 2,” that wasn’t too ridiculous. Of course, I adjusted it a little to bring down the cost…and surprisingly, increase the fancy factor a bit.

You will need:

• ½ box fettuccini (spaghetti and linguine also work)
• ¼ pound each of bay scallops and medium shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• Note: this sounds pricey, I know, but if you get them at the meat counter in Kroger, they are actually less than $2 each
• 2 slices bacon
• 2 large cloves garlic, or ½ tablespoon garlic powder
• ½ medium yellow onion, or 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 red bell pepper
• dash of red pepper flakes (more if spicy is your thing)
• 1 10-oz can chicken stock
• 2 large egg yolks (save the whites for breakfast tomorrow!)
• Parmesan cheese, for topping
• parsley, for topping

This recipe seems like it lists a lot of ingredients, but chances are, you have most of these in your pantry and fridge anyway (and if you don’t, you should). In fact, this is one of my go-to meals when I don’t really have ingredients for anything else…I just make it without the seafood.

Start by putting a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Next, mince your onion and garlic into very fine pieces; cut the pepper into long, thin strips. Set aside. You can use the same knife and cutting board to chop the seafood and bacon. The bacon should get cut into small pieces (they cook faster). The bay scallops can stay whole, but the shrimp should be cut into halves or thirds. Put the bacon into a large frying pan over medium heat and the shrimp into a smaller pan over medium-low heat. Add a dash of garlic powder or a little of the minced fresh garlic to the shrimp.

Once the bacon starts getting crispy, add the garlic, onion and pepper to the pan. Around this time, you can start adding the scallops to the pan with the shrimp (the shrimp should be mostly cooked and only slightly translucent). Add a small amount of water to the seafood pan so they steam a little and stay soft.

Once your water reaches a boil, sprinkle some salt in as seasoning, then add the pasta and cook according to package directions. When your seafood is done (it should all be opaque, but not tough), turn the heat down to low and cover the pan, making sure there’s still a little water simmering in it. Your vegetables should be just about cooked; the pepper should have a little crunch and the onion should be turning slightly translucent. Add ½ of the can of chicken stock to the pan to deglaze it, scraping the bottom with a spoon or spatula to get all the bacon fat into the mix. Pour the rest of the chicken stock into the pasta water to flavor it.

When the pasta is cooked, add it to the big pan with the bacon and veggies, but save a ladleful or two of the pasta water. Pour this still-boiling water into a small bowl with the egg yolks and whisk vigorously, then pour over the pasta and toss. This step, along with the bacon, is what makes a carbonara. Don’t worry about the yolks being raw; the steam and water from the pasta pot will cook them enough to eat, without scrambling them.

Top the pasta with a dash of parsley a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Add the seafood, toss and serve.

Tags: College Kitchen, Emma Frankart, pasta, shrimp