Wow! This pasta blew us away. I wanted to buy some seafood when I went to the Rocklea markets and was lucky to spot some fresh scallops. I had been eying off Giuliano Hazan's Spaghetti with Scallops from his 30 Minute Pasta book for a while. It is based on a similar recipe of Marcella's from Essentials.
I find it very difficult to find fresh scallops. Most are frozen crap. But at the markets I bought about 300 grams of fresh for $10.
Not much in this recipe. The best Hazan recipes don't have many ingredients. Garlic, parsley, chilli flakes and breadcrumbs are about it. I tried to make the breadcrumbs in the oven first, after blending some old bread. I burned them, and then had another go in a skillet as suggested by Marcella in Essentials.
The pasta sauce itself was simple. I was worried about the liquid coming from the scallops but need not have because it was that tasty sauce that made the pasta. There was no browning, or consequential pasta water, in sight, but that didn't matter.
The pasta water reference confuses me a little - should water not have come from my scallops? Why would you need the pasta water?
In any event the dish was an absolute triumph. The pasta was indeed the hero, and the sauce tasted of the sea, but in a good way - in the way you want seafood to taste. Every bite was delicious. A runner for the best pasta dish I have ever eaten. Certainly the best seafood one.
Hats off to Giuliano for this one, and Marcella before him. This dish is stellar.
ps - anyone got any tips on how to remove the beet stains from my chopping board? They made some of my scallops red.
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