Decided on pasta and looked through 'Pasta' by Anna Del Conte & Eric Treuille. I love this book as it has so many photos, which I need when looking for recipes.
I looked through the book and excluded any tomato based sauces which I make a lot. Also excluded meat sauces ('no meat mondays'). And no cheese sauces as still recovering from the phenomenally buttery bearnaise sauce!! Looked at the seafood section and didn't get any further. I selected four recipes and I let A choose... Scallops with Garlic and Crisp Crumbs.
Not many ingredients and again, I made sure that I had all the ingredients ready. I even made sure I measured out the olive oil, the parsley and the chili, when usually I throw in what I think looks like the rough measure.
This recipe does not take long to cook but next time (if there is a next time) I would suggest adding the garlic last when adding the parsley, chili and breadcrumbs to the pan. As you cook on a high heat to get the breadcrumbs crispy, the garlic burns. I did try to do it all quickly but the garlic still burned slightly as I added it to the pan first.
Also I was worried about the lack of any sauce, not even enough to coat the pasta. The breadcrumbs absorb all the olive oil. I saved some pasta water but didn't use it as I followed the recipe. it was tasty but too dry. We drizzled olive oil on but the taste of the olive oil was slightly too strong. We also squeezed a bit of lemon juice but again, it wasn't right. I think a bit of water from cooking the pasta might have been the best thing as I re-heated some left overs and added some water, making it less claggy (but did make the breadcrumbs soggy - you can't win).
Not sure I would have this again, but I do like the idea of frying breadcrumbs, garlic, chili and parsley and sprinkling on something
