If you watched this season of TOP CHEF MASTERS, you'll remember chef Johnathan Waxman aka The Obi Wan Kenobe of cooking.
I bought Obi Wan's book (proves that being on Top Chef is great marketing for chefs) and in it are a few great looking scallop recipes -- this isn't one of them.
In his book, "A Great American Cook", Waxman says that it's a crime to do too much with a scallop. Keep it clean and simple, and that's what I tried to do here. I feel like I succeded, but then again, I don't have Padma or Tom to tell me how badly I failed.
But I think Obi Wan (or at least his book) taught me well...
So if you read some of my previous posts, we have this basil plant that is going crazy and have more basil than we know what to do with, so Brooke said "Let's do a pesto". "Great", I said, even though I've never made pesto.
I've been wanting to make scallops and thought that a nice pesto pasta was simple enough not to be a travesty by Waxman's standards and so here's what we came up with -- by the way, I say "we" because I have the greatest Sous Chef in the world -- my wife, Brooke.
What you need (for two):5 Large Scallops
Buccatini Pasta (or similar pasta - I like Perciatelli a lot, too)
For the pesto, from Joy of Cooking:
2 cups Fresh Basil leaves
1/3 cup Pine Nuts
Olive Oil
1/4 cup Pamesan Cheese
Salt n Peppa
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic - I used elehant garlic
Food processor.
**Side Note: interestingly, Elephant Garlic is not garlic. It's actually a type of onion -- a species of leek, in fact, which probably explains why I love it! I am bat-shit about leeks. Elephant Garlic is milder than regular garlic, and although I love strong garlic, in pesto sauces I think that regular garlic is often overpowering, which is why I went for elephant garlic instead.
Put the basil, nuts and parmesan into the food processor, and gun it. then slowly pour in your olive oil until it makes a nice paste. You may not need to use all of it, but keep adding the olive oil until it gives you a good, pasty texture.
Next, get a pot of salted water boiling for the pasta. Then start on the scallops. First, wash and pat them dry and cut off the tough muscle from the side of the scallop if it hasn't been done by your fishmonger. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over med heat in a skillet or pan. Don't use a non-stick pan...they aren't as good for searing as they don't distribute heat properly. Put your scallops in the pan and cook without disturbing them for about 3 minutes. You want the bottoms of the scallops to be brown, and when they are, they should release easily from the pan. When the first side is done, turn the scallops over using tongs and brown the other side.
Meanwhile, cook your pasta, strain, then put back into the pot. Add pesto to taste, and mix it up with the pasta over low heat. You may want to add a little olive oil to help looses the pesto and coat the noodles.
The last step is really a dealers choice. You can either chop up the scallops and mix them in with the pasta, or plate your pasta with a couple of scallops on top, and finish by putting some pesto on top of each scallop and drizzling with olive oil. Either way is good. And I know it's sacrilidge to put cheese on seafood pasta, but if you want some parmisan on there, knock yourself out!
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