Tour of Italy???

Since it is now Wednesday, and I’ve had a few days to digest my Week 6 menu, I began to realize that my menu looks particularly pasta heavy (pun intended) this week – scallops with pasta, pasta fagioli soup, vegetarian ziti gratin. With this realization, I feel compelled to steal a line from the good old Olive Garden and refer to this week as “The Tour of Italy.”

First stop – Seared Scallops with Pasta and Marina.

I think we all know how to cook pasta (I chose spaghetti for mine), and how to cook marinara (if you don’t have any in your freezer, I personally love Barilla).  The tricky part of this simple meal is searing the scallops, especially if you use previously frozen scallops. 

The key with searing, whether it be shellfish or any other kind of meat for that matter, is dry meat. Bone dry.  When you think it can’t possibly be any drier dry.

After I have thawed the scallops, they get a good rinse and I place them on a plate lined with paper towels.  I place paper towels on top of the scallops and press all of the water out of them. You may have to do this a couple times.  Trust me. It’s worth it.

Once the scallops are dry, I season both sides with salt and pepper.




dry and seasoned - and ready to go!

 I sear them in a pan on medium-high heat, with enough olive oil to coat the pan. Now, this is no time to walk away from the stove to check your e-mail (or favorite blog).Scallops cook fast. Really fast.  Maybe two minutes per side, tops. You have to watch them. HAVE TO.  I actually prefer to take the scallops off the heat when they are a little under cooked (I’m the same way with prawns), because they will continue to “cook” once they are removed from the pan.

If you follow these simple steps, I guarantee you will have beautiful, sweet juicy scallops, with great carmelization. 



Dinner is served.