Wednesday, July 3, 2013

I’ll admit. I’m stuck on “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” and building up my town as mayor. And having it on the Nintendo 3DS just means I can take it with me, which may or may not be a good thing.

However, I am finding that planting saplings, collecting fossils and buying accessories for my house pale in comparison to fishing the nearby waters around Tigger (yes, I named my town after my beloved cat). 

But for all the variety I’m finding in the deep blue, I have yet to see two sea creatures that I would love on my plate – crabs and scallops.

So I decided I would put one of them on my real life dinner plate with a little bacon and pasta.

Ingredients:
  • ·        4 strips of bacon
  • ·        Olive oil
  • ·        ½ medium onion, chopped
  • ·        Green bell pepper, chopped
  • ·        2 T garlic cloves, minced
  • ·        ¼ to ½ t crushed dried red pepper
  • ·        12 oz. sea scallops, quartered
  • ·        12 oz. linguine

Take your bacon and cut it into thin strips, about ¼ inch wide. Drop them all into a medium skillet over medium heat and cook until brown, but not crispy.

While the bacon is cooking, put on a large pot of water and get it boiling. Add a couple of pinches of kosher salt, and then add the linguine. You want the pasta to be al dente (firm to the bite). Check your pasta box for cooking times.

Once the bacon has cooked, remove them from the pan using a slotted spoon and place in a small bowl. Keep as much of the bacon fat as you can in the skillet and add enough olive oil to total up about ½ cup.

Add the chopped onion and green pepper to the oil mix and sauté for about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for about another minute.

Toss the quartered scallops in. You can use bay scallops if you don’t want to mess with the cutting, but I think sea scallops tend to be a bit sweeter and more flavorful.


Saute the scallops for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring gently as they cook. Don’t overcook or the scallops will get rubbery.

When the pasta is done, drain and put in a large bowl. Add the scallop mixture and reserved bacon and toss it all together.

The whole thing takes about 20 minutes, more than enough time to let the ocean around your city repopulate with fishy treasures.

Although, if someone does catch a crab, I’ve got a great crabcake recipe just waiting.

Happy gaming!


2 comments: