Sometimes, you’re at the store and you see something on sale that you haven’t really worked with before, and your husband says “YUM!” You grab up the scallops, and you think, “Now what can I make with this?”
Sometimes, you’ve also recently had wine that was amazing – Fontanella’s Chardonnay, and you think, now what could that go with? Ah, yes some sort of creamy Alfredo – with bacon.
Because, folks, if any wine I’ve tasted has wanted bacon, it’s Fontanella’s Chardonnay. It’s creamy, a little smokey, and has a bit of paprika and spice to it. Perfect for pairing with bacon.
So, I decided, I needed to make fettuccine Alfredo.
I started out by frying up 3 strips of bacon. Now, when you do bacon, in my opinion, it’s best to throw it into the stainless steel pan unadulterated. Don’t add oil to your bacon! Do you hear me? It produces its own oil as it cooks, and believe me, that’s plenty to keep it from sticking to the pan. Plus, um, who needs more fat with their bacon?
Not me.
Once the bacon is done, I take it out and put it on a paper-towel lined plate to soak up the grease and set it aside. I then drained off most of the fat, reserving about 2 tablespoons worth. Then, I added 2 tablespoons of butter. Once it melted, I added the scallops, about 1 teaspoon of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary, and 1/4 teaspoon each of paprika, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes. I cooked the scallops until they were done and browned on each side, removed them to the same paper-towel lined plate added the zest of one lemon and juice from that lemon. I then set them aside to keep warm while I began working on the roux.
I added 3 tablespoons of flour to the pan and mixed it into the butter that was there until it was a light brown. Then, I added 1 onion, chopped up to the pan. Once the onion was looking translucent, I added 3 large cloves of garlic (had they been smaller, I’d have used 6 or 7 but these guys were HUGE), minced. I let that cook and added about 1 teaspoon of oregano to the pan, and let all that cook together for about a minute. Then, I added 3/4 cup of white wine to deglaze the pan, and let it boil down. I added 1 cup of cream, 1/2 cup of whole milk, and 1/4 cup of packed chopped parsley. I also re-added the scallops and the bacon, which was now chopped. I did not add parmesan to the sauce. I brought the whole thing to just below a boil, reduced the temperature, and let it do its think simmering while the fettuccine noodles cooked. When they were done, I reserved about 1 cup of pasta water, drained the noodles, and then added the reserved water to the sauce.
Simply serve the sauce over the pasta, garnish with parmesan (a good amount!) and parsley, and enjoy…with the wine.
It was an excellent pairing.
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