Pasta dishes make a great dinner to feed the family or a fine meal to enjoy with company.
A popular favourite is Orecchiette. It’s a small dishshaped pasta that tastes great and holds its sauce well. This recipe is paired with a saffron cream, seared scallops, crisp chorizo and broccolini. It’s a rich but tasty meal and makes a mouthwatering dinner or lunch.
Ingredients
Orecchiette
Cook less pasta and use half the sauce for smaller gatherings.
500g good quality Italian dried Orecchiette
200g chorizo – diced into 1cm pieces.
16 big juicy scallops
2 broccolini – first 2 inches of tops cut and diced through the stems
200g rocket
Shaved parmesan to top your dish – optional
Lemon cheek to garnish and serve
(Serves 4-6)
Saffron sauce base
Make the base first (this can be made a day ahead if needed).
½ tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 eschalots, peeled and sliced
1 pinch or ½ g of saffron
1 sprig thyme – whole
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
50ml rice wine vinegar
200ml white wine
500ml vegetable stock
500ml cream
Saffron Sauce Method
- In a heavy-based pot sweat off olive oil, butter, shallots, thyme, bay leaves and fennel seeds until tender.
- Add vinegar and white wine and reduce gently by half.
- Toast and crush saffron and add to the pot.
- Add stock and reduce by half.
- Add cream and reduce until it coats the back of a spoon and then
- strain the sauce.
- Check seasoning and adjust to suit. Put it back in the pot and set aside.
Method
- Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Cook the pasta for 12-15 minutes or as per the pack and to how you like your pasta.
- Put your pasta sauce back on a low heat. Add a spoon of pasta water to the sauce if needed.
- Add broccolini to the pasta water and cook for 30 seconds. Strain the pasta and add to the sauce.
- Take a non-stick frypan and heat it up to mediumhigh. Put in your diced chorizo and pan cook until it starts to colour. Scoop out the chorizo, put half in the pasta sauce and set aside the rest, leaving the oil in the pan.
- Turn the pan back on the heat to medium-high. Put the scallops on to sear. Chef Matt likes to colour up one side and seal the other side but cook them how you prefer to eat them.
- Stir the pasta through with half the rocket. Add remaining rocket to the bowls.
- Spoon the pasta into the bowls. Place the scallops around the top of the dish and sprinkle the remaining chorizo over the top. Add a cheek or wedge of lemon and serve.
