This pasta is a very fast meal, perfect after a busy day.

Ingredients
95g pancetta
3 tbsp olive oil
12 scallops with their coral roe on
1 large shallot, finely chopped (these are the echalion shallots - or banana shallot, if you use round shallots just use two)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
150ml Prosecco or white wine
4 tbsps white vermouth (optional - you can just increase your prosecco by 60ml if you do not have this)
50g butter
20g finely chopped parsley
½ tsp sugar
15g parmesan, finely grated
1 lemon, zest and juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
400g fresh linguine

Method
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil.

Cut off the roe from the scallops and just trim off the very edge that was attached to the scallops and finely chop.  Place the scallops on a sheet or two of kitchen paper to remove any excess moisture, otherwise the pan will spit too much when you start to cook them.

Put the pancetta into a large frying pan or wok and cook over a medium heat until golden and crispy.  Put to one side on a sheet of kitchen roll.

Depending on how much fat has come out of the pancetta you may not need to add any additional oil. If needed, add a tbsp of olive oil to your pan and put on to a medium heat. When hot, add the shallot, garlic and scallop roe and gently cook for 2-3 minutes. You want them to be soft and cooked without any colour.  Turn up the heat to medium high and add the prosecco and vermouth and cook for a couple more minutes until the sauce has reduced by roughly half.

Meanwhile when your water boils, add your pasta and cook according to package instructions (usually less than 5 mins).

Put the lemon zest, juice, remaining butter and parsley into the shallots and stir.   Turn the heat to low.Take a cup and fill with pasta water. You need to slowly add some pasta water to your shallots, I add roughly 100/120ml and see how it is, this will create a ‘sauce’ for coating the pasta. In truth it moistens the pasta and adds some flavour but your pasta won’t be swimming in sauce. If the shallot mix looks not saucey enough, add another 100/120ml and see how it looks.

In a separate pan heat 2 tbsps of the oil in a frying pan over a high heat and sear the scallops quickly - you want them to have a gorgeous golden crust but not be over cooked, hence the high heat. The trick to scallops is to put the heat high then put them around the edge of the frying pan in a clockwise manner from 12 o’clock because by the time you have put all of the scallops in the pan it will be time to season them with flaked salt and turn them, starting at scallop no 1. Before you turn check the crust is golden, it should be.  Season the other side and then starting with scallop no 1, check the crust and start to remove them as soon as the golden crust is there. 

Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the parmesan and plenty of black pepper, then toss to make sure the strands are well coated.

Put the pasta into bowls and top with the scallops and crumble over the pancetta.