Saturday’s Dinner Recipe
Thanks Krissy for reminding me to blog about this and for Sue / Susan on her great encouragement on this little meal and, most of all, to my friend Lee who gave me the inspiration for this one. If you try this at home, let me know how it comes out.
First, the ingredients:
- 8-12 Sea Scallops (Do not buy frozen seafood. Make sure they’re fresh.)
- One 6 ounce Ahi Tuna Steak (of course, never-frozen)
- 10 Ounces of fresh Fettuccini pasta (must still be moist, not frozen or dried)
- One pack of bacon “bits and ends” which is basically just the fattiest part of the bacon. Of course, Italian bacon is better but if you’re not shopping at a specialty store, you won’t find it. If you can’t find Italian bacon, just get the bits and ends. It’s cheap and all you’re using is a little bacon but mostly it’s the cooked fat
- Alfredo sauce (if you have a homemade recipe, great. If not, store bought is good. I used Bertolli in the jar)
- Fresh ground pepper
- GOOD olive oil
- Salt
- Cayenne Pepper
- Bay Seasoning
- Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese
- One Garlic
- One pound of asparagus – uncut
Also, make sure you chill one bottle of GOOD Sauvignon Blanc. I only had a Robert Mondavi bottle on hand. It’s not high-end but I think it’s in the high $20s. I wrapped it in a wine cooler blanket and put it in the freezer 10 minutes before serving.
Alright, The asparagus will take the longest so I put that into a pyrex dish, doused with olive oil and cracked pepper with a dash of salt. Covered with tin foil and pre-heated the over to 350.
While the oven was pre-heating, I used about half a stick of butter on 2 non-stick skillets, one cast iron griddle and put water in a medium pan for the fettuccini. I put about 4 ounces of bacon “bits and ends” into the small non-stick pan on medium heat, The sea scallops were also put into a larger pan with olive oil & a tad bit of butter. Also, I put the pre-made alfredo sauce into a pan with a dash of pepper and Italian seasoning and 3 table spoons of olive oil and allowed that to simmer.
The ahi tuna steak was soaked in soy sauce and I patted in some ground peppercorn and a miniscule amount of steak seasoning with a pinch of salt. This was repeated on both sides and allowed to marinate for 30 minutes in the soy sauce. The ahi tuna was then put on the iron skillet / griddle for grilling.
So, let’s fast forward about 15 minutes.
The Sea scallops are nearly cooked and just need to be browned a bit so now would be a good time to sprinkle some peppercorn and bay seasoning on them, the bacon is now 90% liquid fat and a few bits of actual bacon in the pan and the ahi tuna is half way cooked and has been flipped a couple of times while the asparagus is in the oven baking away.
The water is now boiling so we pinch a bit of salt into the pan and put the fettuccini in allowing that to boil for 6-8 minutes
I reduce heat on all the other dishes allowing the scallops and tuna to brown a bit and for the bacon fat to just chill out for a bit and enjoy the view. Be careful with that grease. What can happen if you make the heat too high is that the bacon grease will start to smoke and pop and the bacon itself will start to burn.
After draining the fettuccini into a large mixing bowl, I mix in the scallops, afredo sauce and bacon grease + bacon bits and one quarter of a cup of grated parmesan. I stirred well mixing in a bit more pepper and Italian seasoning.
So, what we’re left with is a mixing bown full of fettuccini alfredo pasta with seared sea scallops with a nice bacon aftertaste. Also, the asparagus, after the 25 minutes was moist on the outside and crispy on the inside. The pepper and light salt made for a nice touch. I’d recommend slight chopped garlic as well which makes the asparagus pop after being cooked. Just mince the garlic up and put it in the olive oil with the asparagus. The ahi tuna was served on the side with a dab of tarter sauce but would be perfect served on its own.
You should have finished the first glass of Sauvignon Blanc while cooking. Finish the bottle off and this should be enough food for 3 people in total. It doesn’t seem like it but, altogether, it’s quite a bit! For non-wine people, a bottle of wine should be 4 glasses total so drinking one for yourself then sharing another with 2 other people with a 2nd helping for the cook is perfectly appropriate.
Sorry for all of the writing but some people asked me to write this one down so I did. I’m not expert at recipe writing and I make everything up as I go so it’s surprising I remembered all of this. Anywho, thanks for reading!
BTW, I don’t follow recipes. I don’t have a recipe book. I was at the store, saw the scallops and tuna steak at the seafood section and quickly ran through possible ideas and then just bought the rest of the stuff. We should all strive for that. Just go to the grocery store, find your main ingredient and go home to cook a masterpiece. The meal cost I’m going to break down.
- Wine – $25
- Scallops – $11
- Ahi Tuna Steak – $6
- Fettuccini – $3.50
- Alfredo Sauce – $2.60
- Bacon “bits and ends” – $2.19 (only used 1/8th of it)
- Seasonings you should already have. If not, it makes the meal VERY expensive but seasonings last for a LONG TIME
- Asparagus – $4
- If you were to buy all of the extras ( butter, spices, etc), it would be an extra $15-$25. Once you have this stuff, you’re all good.
So, aside from the wine which I already had, it was a pricey meal at $25 but considering it serves three people and was absolutely delicious, I’d say it was money well spent.
