Confession time. Mrs J loves carbs. That’s Love with a big L. Bread, yum. Toast, yum yum! Rice, couscous … you name it. Especially if you don’t have to peel it, it’s all good.

Tonight, let’s focus for a minute on the fact that carbs are good for you. Essential even, for an active person. So let’s indulge in Mrs J’s favorite carbohydrate.

This is a pasta with seafood and leeks. Because once again Mrs J found herself with a couple of leeks needing a home. Don’t know how. Don’t know why. It happens. Let’s just go with it.

Quickly marinate some shrimp and a couple of scallops (about 350g combined weight) with the rind of a lemon, a large clove of garlic, finely chopped, and some crushed red pepper. Use enough olive oil to liberally coat the seafood. It only needs about 20 min in the marinade. Season with salt.

As you can see, Mrs J uses the entire scallop once more. She thinks it both looks and tastes good.

Slice a couple of leeks. Mrs J gives them a good wash before cutting them and also rinses them after cutting, using a sieve.

Cook about 200g of dry pasta according to instructions on the packet. Any kind of pasta works, Mrs J happened to have this kind in the pantry.

Put a couple of dashes of olive oil in a pan and cook the leeks on low to medium heat until just wilted, about 5 minutes.

Unless you’d like to wash up an additional pan, just push the leeks to the side of the pan and add the seafood, with all the marinade, and cook until just about firm.

Remove the seafood from the pan and set aside for a minute (you don’t want to overcook it). Pour in about 1 dl of dry white wine and stir. Cook until the alcohol has evaporated.

Add the cooked pasta and mix. Add the seafood back in the pan and let sit for a couple of minutes on gentle heat to allow the flavours to blend.

Give everything a taste and season further to taste with salt, black pepper and perhaps a squeeze or two of lemon juice. Finally add a handful of finely chopped parsley.

Mix, serve, enjoy!