We made the mistake of letting our oldest daughter try scallops for the first time when she was about 18 months and she fell in love with them! She quickly ate nearly my entire serving of scallops, and since then will frequently request them for dinner. For the longest time I was hesitant to cook them at home because they seemed "hard" to get right. However, they're actually pretty easy and quick to cook yourself at home. Plus they are full of protein making them a great, healthy option. There are few tricks to making delicious scallops at home: make sure you have thoroughly patted them dry before cooking; get the pan extremely hot before you start; don't overcook them (try to have the rest of dinner ready as they cook quickly).
Ingredients:
Scallops 1 1/4 lb. (about 16) sea scallops
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2. Tbsp butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp capers
Fettuccine or spaghetti
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups spinach
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
1. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta until desired tenderness.
2. While the pasta is cooking, dry the scallops well by blotting them with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture.
3. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large nonstick frying pan or cast iron pan over high heat. (If you want to keep the calories lower in this meal use only the olive oil or just the butter, personally I find the combination of the two makes for a delicious brown coating to the scallops and is worth the extra calories).
5. When the oil/butter is extremely hot carefully add scallops to pan. Make sure the scallops are not touching each other so that they cook evenly. Sear scallops for 1 1/2-2 minutes on one side until the bottom is golden brown.
6. Flip the scallops over and add the other tbsp of butter to pan, allowing the other side of the scallop to cook for another 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Without draining the pan, remove the scallops and transfer them to paper towel-lined plate.
8. In the same pan you just used for the scallops add 2 cups spinach and 1 tbsp lemon juice and saute over medium-high heat until for roughly 3-4 minutes until begins to wilt.
9. Add the cooked pasta to the pan with spinach, toss with fresh grated Parmesan. Top with scallops and serve immediately.
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