Truthfully, I shouldn't call it that for the pure and simple reason that finding mascarpone is the hardest freaking thing on the planet. I'm not sure it even exists because I have never even seen it. What's up with that, by the way? About half the recipes I try call for the one type of cheese that no one carries!? What's up with that? But I digress...
So, this is one of those occasions in which I found a recipe online and (sort of) followed directions--which, I might add, most of you know is difficult for me to do. You can click the link to find the original recipe, but I will henceforth be telling you how I, myself, did the cooking.
Part I - The Pasta
Since this is a pasta dish, the first item of business is to take a pot of water and bring it to a boil. I generally salt the water because it gives the pasta a flavor dimension. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking that makes it boil faster. Water boils when it boils, not before, and there's no freaking way you can convince it otherwise.
Once the water (finally) came to a boil, I added a 16-oz. pkg of seashell pasta, and put that on for roughly 8 minutes because I like al dente pasta.
Part II - The Vegetables
Meanwhile, I put the following ingredients in a 12-in. pan over medium:
6 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
I let these ingredient play with each other a bit until I got a nice smell of cooking garlic, at which time I added my vegetables and seasonings. I love mushrooms so I went ahead and used a 12-oz. pkg. of sliced mushrooms. At this point, I had gotten a little annoyed with how badly my knife sucked, so I only added 1/2 bunch asparagus that I had trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces. For seasonings, I put in 1/2 tsp onion powder and salt and pepper to taste.
Begin the arduous task of waiting until the asparagus was tender. See, I like vegetables with a little resiliency but not crunchy. Asparagus--at least in this case--was one of those that just irritated the hell out of me because getting it to perfection takes some time, especially since you have to stay around it to stir occasionally. The recipe estimated 5 minutes. Mine took about 6 1/2 minutes because I had the big asparagus.
Part III - The Scallops
Now comes the part I had never, ever done before: cooking the scallops. I used 1 pound bay scallops because I hear they have more flavor. Make sure you rinse and pat them dry, and also remember to take them out of the freezer hours beforehand so you don't have to wait for them to thaw.
Now remember all those veggies you just cooked up? Well the recipe calls for you to cook the scallops in the same pan, presumably to get that flavor in them. This requires removing the vegetables without removing all of the yummy byproduct of the saute process. I poured the veggies into a bowl, failed horribly at trying to keep some of the juice in the pan and had to carefully pour some juice back into the pan by draining it off of the vegetables. My kitchen became a mess in no time at all, as you can imagine, but I did it.
Time for the scallops, which I had to cook until "lightly browned" and cooked all the way through. The recipe estimated would take about 3 minutes per side--yeah right! For those of you who don't know, bay scallops are smaller than sea scallops, so you would think it would then take six minutes or less to cook them in this way. Whatever. Those little suckers would not brown. After about 9 minutes, I took the biggest one off and cut into it to see if it was done and it was, so I went ahead and quit while I was ahead.
Part IV - The Sauce
Sometime during all of these other adventures, I was also putting together what would become the sauce. Remember I said I couldn't find mascarpone? Well, luckily mascarpone is one of those things you can substitute pretty easily, using ricotta or in this case, an 8-oz. pkg. of (American) Neufchรขtel cheese. I combined this with 1/4 cup whole milk and 2 tbsp butter in a small saucepan over medium until the cheese, not just the butter, had combined into the mixture and it was nice and warm.
Part V - Putting it all together
This is probably where I went wrong, but I ran with it. I took the pasta, the vegetables, the scallops, and the sauce and I combined them all in one bowl to create the train wreck in the picture at the top, snapped some pictures, and indulged in the high-caloric content.
The Conclusion
This dish was not nearly as "light" as I expected--and as the recipe states. Keep in mind however, that it is a dairy-based pasta dish and that is probably why it really sticks to the ribs. The cheese added a very nice tang, which is nice for a cream sauce, which I usually find slightly more bland than I'd like. The scallops gave it a nice texture, but since scallops only have a very light flavor to begin with I would almost suggest pairing the pasta with a more flavorful seafood or possibly chicken. My favorite part, however, would have the be the vegetables. The mushrooms and asparagus really rounded everything out and the flavor from the saute process was just amazing.
Like I've already said, using another fish or chicken is worth a try. Another thing I would do is get the baby asparagus as it cooks more quickly and blends in a little bit better. Of course, I would love to one day try a recipe with mascarpone cheese so if anyone know where to find it in the Panama City area please share! Also, I am never, ever going to use seashell pasta for this again. I'm thinking something like farfalle, or even a small stuffed pasta and getting rid of the separate seafood part of the dish entirely. I have much to improve upon here, but the fact that I even say that means the recipe is a definitely a keeper.
Chef's Rating: 8.7 (B+)
