Ebi to kobashira no gorugonzoora soosu guratan / shrimp and bay scallop gratin with gorgonzola cheese

One of my favorite mac & cheese – a great pairing of gorgonzola cheese and shrimp and scallops. The taste can run from rich to light depending on whether you use heavy cream, milk or soy milk, or a combination. Below is an indulgent dairy version for me, featuring heavy cream and milk, yet the green vegetable (yu choy sum) lightens up the aftertaste for a pleasant flavor overall. Great with wine!

1/2 of recipe:
548 calories; 29.4 g protein; 28.5 g fat; 38.6 g carbohydrate; 34.8 g net carbs; 408 mg sodium; 191 mg cholesterol; 3.8 g fiber


<Ingredients>

80 g penne pasta

80-100 g shrimp (110 g after cleaning in photo)
1 tbsp potato starch (to clean shrimp; not in photo)
80-100 g bay scallops (84 g in photo)
1/4 onion (50 g in photo)
100 g saishin yu choy sum
4 tsp panko breadcrumbs
1 sprig parsley

40 g gorgonzola cheese
6 tbsp (90 cc) heavy cream
4 tbsp (60 cc) milk

1/2 tbsp olive oil (plus some oil to coat gratin dishes; not in photo)
6 g butter
2 tsp white wine


<Directions>
1.

Clean shrimp with potato starch, rinse well, and drain.

2.
Start boiling water to cook pasta, and preheat oven (see Notes).

3.

Cut onion crosswise in half, and thinly slice.
Cut yu choy sum into 3-4 cm.
Chop parsley.

4.

Coat gratin dishes with olive oil.

5.

In a frying pan, heat olive oil, and saute shrimp and bay scallops.

Add white wine, and continue sauteing until seafood starts to look opaque (they do not have to be completely cooked at this point).

Transfer to a plate or bowl.

6.

When pasta water boils, add pasta.

Check package for cooking time. Here the package gives 12 minutes as the “regular” cooking time and 10 minutes for al dente. Since pasta is later added to hot gorgonzola cheese sauce and then baked/broiled, the goal is to stop boiling it at least 1 minute before reaching the al dente time, depending on how firm or soft you want the pasta to be in the final dish. 

7.

In the same frying pan, melt half of butter (save the rest for later), and saute onion on medium to medium low heat.

When onion becomes translucent, add heavy cream and milk, and heat up.
 

When heavy cream and milk are warm, add gorgonzola cheese, melt on low heat while crumbling with spatula, and simmer until somewhat thick.

8.

Thirty seconds before pasta is done, add stem sections of yu choy sum.
When stem sections start to brighten, add leaves.

When yu choy sum leaves brighten, drain with pasta.

Shake colander once again to get rid of excess water, and add to sauce.
Mix well.

Put shrimp and bay scallops in sauce & pasta mixture, and mix well.

9.

Put pasta and sauce in each gratin dish.
Sprinkle panko, and top with remaining butter (cut into little pieces) and some parsley (save some for final topping).

10.

Bake or broil until top is lightly golden.

11.

Sprinkle remaining parsley.
Ready to serve.

<Notes>

• Oven temperature is relatively flexible. If everything (sauce, goodies and pasta) is hot, you can simply broil until the top becomes lightly golden. If not hot, bake at 400 F/200 C or higher for some time until ingredients heat up, then brown the top by switching to broil.
• No salt is added to pasta cooking water, as the sauce provides enough saltiness for the pasta as well.
• White wine is added to shrimp and bay scallops to eliminate their fishy smell; this is especially effective when using previously frozen seafood.
• If yu choy sum is not available, any green vegetable works fine. It can be cooked separately from pasta. In addition, if using something that is entirely tender (no thick stems), such as spinach, you can put it directly in the sauce before adding pasta.
• The heavy cream above is 36% heavy whipping cream.