Directions
Friday is always a bright day, rain or shine, it doesn’t matter. It is the day of fish and experimentation, the day of the surprise recipe, where everything is allowed. and today we are going to make a great twist on a classic Italian pasta dish: seafood carbonara with shrimp, smoked bacon and squid!
I know that eating fish on Friday is an obsolete custom linked to my boy scout youthful heritage, but it is a sort of ritual of my own, spiritual health has nothing to do with it.
But what are the ingredients for making the perfect seafood pasta carbonara?
Shrimps, squids, eggs, and of course the fatty, lovely guanciale. But in place of the classic guanciale, I used smoked bacon, less fatty and with a splendid shade of smoke to accompany the prawns. I know for real carbonara only guanciale is used, but in this case, it is the crunchiness, not the fat, that I was looking for. If you are a Guanciale Taliban, do what you have to do, but all that fat would cover the delicate flavor of the prawns.
As blasphemous as it sounds and as much as you love the classic carbonara, the seafood carbonara is becoming a classic dish and not an aberration or a tabù. It is one of my favorite dishes: I love the sweetness of the prawns wrapped in the creaminess of the egg with the crunchiness of the bacon in the background. Try it, you will love it!
Ingredients for making seafood pasta carbonara
4 servings
- 4 grams of spaghetti
- 200 grams of diced smoked bacon (or bacon cut into strips)
- 8 prawns
- 2 squid
- 1 egg and 3 yolks
- nutmeg
- pepper and salt
- extra virgin olive oil
- 10 cl if white wine of dry vermouth
How to prepare creamy shrimp and squid carbonara
Bring to boil a large pot of water to cook spaghetti.
Cut the bacon into cubes and put it, with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, in a large pan, in which you will cook all the ingredients and at the end season the spaghetti. Cook for 5 minutes on a low flame.
While the bacon is cooking, wash the prawns and cut them into cubes, the squid into thin slices. Put the prawns to cook with the bacon. Another 5-6 minutes. Drain a bit of bacon fat in another pan and cook the squid separately for about ten minutes, with the lid on to make them soft with the steam.
Combine all the seasoning in the large pan, deglaze with a splash of white aromatic wine and cook for 3 minutes. Taste and if necessary season with salt and pepper and set aside.
In a bowl, beat 1 egg and 3 yolks seasoned with a sprinkling of nutmeg and a pinch of salt.
Cook spaghetti in plenty of (slightly) salted water and then drain them al dente. Toss them in the pan with the fish and bacon seasoning, cover with the eggs and stir. Keep the flame off, the egg must cook only with the heat of the pasta.
Season with pepper and serve.
The recipe is a bomb, easy to prepare, but long because of the preparation of the fish, but if you want a top first course, give it a chance! As a variant, you can add a half courgette cut into very fine julienne.
Which wine goes well with seafood pasta carbonara?
We choose a Chardonnay, velvety, savory, and creamy like the Maleto della Palazzona di Maggio, a masterpiece of finesse that will be able to degrease the palate and add a creamy touch to serve as a shoulder to the flavor of the egg.
If you prefer to pair a cocktail, the clean flavor of the Moscow Mule is recommended.
