Shrimp & Scallop Pasta with Saffron Cream Sauce

Saffron is a spice from the stigma of the crocus flower. The work needed to produce the spice saffron makes it the most expensive spice in the world, but a little saffron goes a relatively long way. If you don't have saffron and you don't care to buy it, you can substitute ground turmeric, as both spices will give a yellow/golden color to the sauce. 

Bay scallops are smaller than sea scallops and so is the bill for them, as they are cheaper.

 

Pappardelle is a type of pasta that is wide and flat, similar to many types of noodles, except that pappardelle is in long strands or ribbons. As with many types of pasta, you can get it fresh or dried. 

 

Neither Italian restaurant cooks nor Italian home cooks add cheese to sauces with seafood, nor do they sprinkle it on top of finished seafood dishes, but I'm of the feeling that a little cheese can't hurt anything, and I only put a couple of tablespoons of grated cheese in the sauce, which also helps to thicken the sauce.

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

To cook the shrimp:

 

2/3 pound raw shrimp, cleaned, shells saved

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt 

Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and shrimp shells, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer for 5 minutes; then add the shrimp and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until opaque; remove the shrimp to a separate plate temporarily. Strain the broth and return it to the pan.

 

For the overall dish:

 

2/3 pound raw shrimp (prepared with the ingredients above)

2/3 pound bay scallops

1 pound pappardelle

4 tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup shrimp broth from cooking the shrimp (see preparation above)

1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads in 1/4 cup dry white wine

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese)

2/3 cup heavy cream

pinch of ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

In a cup or a small bowl, add the white wine, and crush the saffron threads in the palm of your hand, then add them to the wine, stir to mix, then set it aside temporarily. Melt the butter in a large skillet over low heat; add the scallops, season with a pinch of ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt; saute for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, remove skillet from the heat and let scallops sit in the skillet for about 30 to 60 seconds; remove scallops individually to the separate plate with the shrimp temporarily, leaving the seasoned melted butter in the skillet. Put the skillet back on low heat, add the minced garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the garlicky butter and mix it in to make a roux and keep cooking the roux over the low heat for a total of about 2 minutes (it's okay if the roux acquires a little light tan/golden color, but you don't want it to be dark at all). While stirring constantly and steadily, add about 1/2 cup of the shrimp broth to the roux and as it thickens, add another 1/2 cup of broth, while continuing to stir. Add the saffron/white wine and stir to mix it through, then stir in the lemon juice and grated cheese. Continue on low heat for about 1 minute, then stir in the heavy cream. The sauce should have a nice pale yellowish tint to it. If you use fresh pappardelle, add it and gently mix it around in the creamy sauce. It only takes like 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes to cook fresh pappardelle al dente. If using dried pappardelle cook it separately as per the instructions on the box/bag, drain it very well, then add it to the sauce. Add the cooked shrimp and scallops and mix them through the pasta and sauce (be sure to add any juices that may have collected on the dish). Let the shrimp and scallops come up to temperature, then remove the skillet from the heat and serve.    

WORD HISTORY:

Arrest-This word is used as both a verb and a noun and the "rest" part of it is related to the verb "stay" (with the meaning :"to halt, to stop movement," also, "to hold back"), a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, to another verb "stay" (with the meaning: "to support, to secure, to steady"), also borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, to another verb "stay" (meaning: "to halt some process, usually in legal matters, to halt legal proceedings"), and to the noun "stay" meaning "support," borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and which overlaps with "stay" meaning "rope or cable supporting a ship's mast," a word and meaning from the Germanic roots of English. "Arrest" goes back to Indo European "ad," which had the notion "at, to, toward" (it is also the ancient ancestor of English "at"), which gave Latin "ad," with the same meanings, but also, "having a connection to, in relation to;" thus also, "regarding, with or in regard to." The main body of the word goes back to Indo European "sta(h)/steh," which meant "to stand, to be stable, to be firm or in place," which gave Latin "stare" meaning "to stand," and with the prefix "re,"^ which meant "back, again, against," with the combined parts "re" and "stare" giving Latin the verb "restare" meaning "to halt, to stop, to stay back, to stay behind." "Restare" was then given the prefix "ad" with the shortened form "a," to produce Latin "arrestare" (yes, double 'r;' why, I don't know), meaning "to stop, to cause to stop;" thus also, "to hold back or restrain." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "arester/" with the meaning "to stop, to stay" and English borrowed this in the late 1300s as the verb "aresten" (then "arresten" under the influence of Latin spelling) meaning "to cause or to make someone or something to stop, to make stop for legal reason(s)." The noun had been formed in Old French from the verb as "areste," meaning "a stopping, a stoppage;" thus also, "a delay," which became "arest" in the Anglo-French used in England and English also borrowed this in the late 1300s as "arest," with the "stopping," "stoppage" meaning, and it then too came to be spelled "arrest," under the influence of Latin. The first part of the 1400s saw the word used for "a stopping and detaining by some legal authority to determine liability, if any, for some criminal act." That is by far the main meaning in modern times, although occasionally you might hear something like, "The doctor prescribed some medication to arrest the woman's hay fever." German has the noun "Arrest" (all German nouns are capitalized), "seemingly" from medieval Latin "arrestum," and meaning "to seize or confiscate, to take into custody (person or goods/property), the verb "arrestieren," borrowed from Dutch in the 1300s, which had it from either French or medieval Latin (from "arrestare," see above) and another noun, "Arrestant," meaning "one taken into custody, one put under arrest" (I didn't spend a lot of time on this, but one source says it came from a participle form of medieval Latin "arrestare," "apparently" used as a noun for "prisoner, one in custody"). Regardless of how German acquired these forms, the main noun, "Arrest," is pronounced very similarly to the pronunciation in English, and I have to believe English has influenced the pronunciation. I initially thought German may have borrowed the word from English, but that does not seem to be the case at all. When using "Arrest" in German (it is 'der Arrest,' by the way), the way to say "You are under arrest" is, "Sie stehen unter Arrest," literally, "You stand under arrest."        

^ The prefix "re" has an uncertain origin, although Indo European forms such as "ure," "wret" and "wurt/wert," have been suggested, all with some relationship to the meaning "to turn, to turn around."