Scallops with spaghetti and pea pesto

I decided to keep my first attempt at cooking scallops really simple.  They are delicious in their own right, and could I afford more of them, I would have devoured a plate of them alone.  But that would be extravagant, and I can't afford it.  So the eight plump little scallops and their corals require a little padding to make a proper supper.

The obvious answer was peas.  So sweet and tasty, complementing the sweet, juicy scallops, and allowing me to have another of my favourite foods on the same plate.  What plate of scallops isn't enhanced by a smear or swirl of pea purée?  We would still need a little something more though to take it out of the realms of appetiser and into "proper supper" though.  What to do?

Then I remembered a recipe I saw not so long ago on the Smitten Kitchen blog.  I love Smitten Kitchen.  I only discovered it recently, but Deb makes me laugh, her food is delicious and her photographs have me salivating on my keyboard while I read.  I can only dream of taking photos that great.  Do take a look.  You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I remembered a recipe from June for linguine with pea pesto.  I had been meaning to try it but hadn't quite been brave enough to try and convince Hubby that a meal comprising almost exclusively pasta and peas was worth coming home for.  Memories of the disappointed sigh he gave me 7 years ago, shortly after we had first moved in together, when I proudly informed him that dinner was pea & mint soup, and his subsequent confession that he had told his co-workers after he put the phone down that he may as well work late since dinner sounded awful, flooded back.  I tried to reason with myself.  After all, Hubby had come home, had eaten dinner, and had confessed this miserable tale in order to tell me how wrong he had been.  Home-made pea and mint soup has been a staple in our home ever since, not least because it only takes 15 minutes to make.  Surely, if he could handle pea and mint soup, he could handle pea pesto?

I couldn't shake the feeling that it would need a little something extra to lift it into the realms of "meal worth racing home for".  The scallops provided the perfect opportunity.

Deb's original recipe is fab.  I need to add a little more mint next time, to really make it zing, but that error is mine not hers.  I also used frozen peas, which she does suggest, though she prefers fresh.  I quite agree that fresh peas can be magnificent and I have many happy childhood memories of eating them straight out of the pods while picking them for Sunday lunch.  Maybe the peas last better in New York, but I never get that same feeling of euphoria from pods picked up in the shops, no matter how enticing they are in theory.  Even the ones at the farmers' market can taste a little lacklustre.  The magic of fresh peas vanishes within hours of picking them, so if you can't get them straight from your garden or allotment, I would stick with frozen - all that goodness and taste is captured, albeit in the slightly less romantic form of a plastic bag.  The other slight modification I made was using spaghetti as I couldn't justify buying linguine when we already had a ton of spaghetti in the pantry.  I think linguine would definitely be an improvement, since it would hold the pesto better.  Next time (and there will most definitely be a next time for this recipe), I will go a little more cautiously with the water as I made it a little too loose.  That said, we both loved it.

The scallops were pan-fried in a little groundnut oil with the corals, seasoned with pepper and then, just before finishing, I added a quarter cup of the white wine we were drinking with dinner to the pan, to flavour the scallops and soak up the cooking juices.  I reduced this down until the scallops were opaque but still firm in the centre and drizzled the remaining liquor over the meal once I had finished assembling it.  The meat eaters out there may wish to cook the scallops with a little pancetta or bacon, or maybe even the ubiquitous black pudding, but Hubbo assures me it is not necessary (although he would never knock the additions).  As a confirmed carnivore, I trust his judgement on this.

For a first foray into cooking scallops, I was pretty pleased.  I feared I would overcook them, turning them hard and dry, but they were moist, tender and lovely.  Everything I could have hoped for.  My only problem is reminding myself that they can only be a once in a blue moon treat, even on special offer.