This is a simple tasty pasta dish with fresh scallops. I started
out looking for an apple recipe of some sort, and this popped up in Ruth Reichl’s
book Comfort Me with Apples, but I wanted to save the apple recipe for my next
post, since apples mean the harvest season is beginning (and my early apples in
the front yard are ripening), but the scallop recipe was so easy (even with no
apples!) that I decided to give it a try. It’s not plagiarized, I promise! Even
Ruth acknowledges that the recipe passed through several hands before she got
to it.
Pasta and Scallops
Ingredients:
1 cup fish stock
1 cup heavy cream
½ pound scallops (bay or sea—your choice)
Salt and pepper
½ pound fresh linguine
1 Tblsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fresh herbs to garnish, if you want
Instructions:
Note: You should follow the steps in the order given. (1)
make the sauce—it takes a little time to cook, but it will hold its heat while
you prepare the other parts of the dish. (2) Sautee the scallops. They will
still be tender, but they will cook a little while longer while you go on to
the next step. (3) Cook the pasta (dry or fresh—dry will take a bit longer. (4)
The final step: add the sauce (and lemon juice) to the hot pasta. The pasta
must be hot in order to soak up the sauce, which is why it’s next to last. Then
dish up, scattering the scallops over the top of the pasta for each serving.
Boil the fish stock in a large pan until it is reduced to 1/4 cup (this won’t take long). Add the cream and simmer until the mixtures is
reduced to 1/2 cup (do not let it boil, and be patient!)
To cook the scallops, pat them dry and season them with salt
and pepper. You can grill them quickly (I thought it seems kind of overkill to
heat up a grill for 2-3 minutes of cooking, although I’m sure the flavor would
be good). So for those of us who are lazy, lightly oil a saute pan and toss the
scallops until cooked (1-2 minutes per side). Remove from the pan and set aside
to keep warm.
Cook the linquine in a large pot of boiling salted water
until al dente. Drain in a colander. Return the pasta to the pot and toss with
the cream sauce (you could also save a little of the pasta cooking liquid and
add that) and lemon juice. Taste for flavoring.
Serve the pasta on a plate or shallow bowl, and top with the
scallops and any remaining sauce. Add a few herb leaves or sprigs for color.
(You could also add a sprinkling of cheese of you want.)
My Irish collage in Garryglass (in Irish it's An Garraí Glas) which means Green Gardenwww.sheilaconnolly.com |
I forgot to introduce the cows in the field at the left (the majority of my neighbors). The belong to the Ellis family, which has been farming those fields (and the ones across the lane) for going on 200 years. I've met a couple of generations of them. Two grandsons were happy to show my friend and me a day-old lamb last summer (no, they're not usually born in August, but there was this ram . . .).
ReplyDeleteMy niece raises sheep and goats. Her matriarch goat was supposed to be finished with being bred due to age. She didn't agree and got over the fence to avail herself of the handsome male there.
DeleteLooks lovely.
ReplyDeleteIf you're cooking bay scallops (the little ones) be sure not to over cook them! They turn into nasty chewy things when overcooked.
Green Garden! What a lovely name! I have a question, Sheila. See that one scallop that looks sort of yellow? I don't cook them often enough to know if that's okay. I would have tossed that little guy. Yellow is safe? Not spoiled?
ReplyDeleteI've always used them. I think it's just the difference of one scallop to another.
DeleteThank you for the recipe. Good luck on your moving project
ReplyDeletequilting lady 2 at comcast dot net