Pesto Scallop Dinner

Tonight was a completely ‘off the cuff’ meal, based on what we had. The result was a mushroom tomato based pesto pasta topped with pan seared garlic butter scallops served with pan seared asparagus.

Let’s start with the pesto, as it was the star of the show. My garden is FULL of basil. And when I was offered scallops for the main course, my mind went to a pesto…and we’d figure the rest out later.

The Pesto.
Into my food processor goes a handful of pecans. Four chopped garlic cloves. A handful of Reggiano. I’m trying to not use A1 milk cheeses. And then fill up the processor with a huge pile of fresh basil from my garden. I douse this with extra virgin olive oil and blend it. A added a little Himalayan sea salt and fresh ground black pepper and ground it again.

Perfect pesto!

I had some button mushrooms and grape tomatoes, so I cooked these down in olive oil. I smashed the tomatoes after a while, because they didn’t burst like I had hoped.

I heated up my griddle.

The scallops were dried. In a bowl, melted butter was mixed with some garlic powder and black pepper.

I boiled a pot of water with a little olive oil, and then put in some linguine. Once the pasta went in, I had 11 minutes.

So the seasoned asparagus went onto the grill (garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, kosher salt) followed by the scallops.

Tossing everything on the griddle a couple times, the cooking was done. While they cooked, the pasta was drained and tossed with some of the pesto.

In a wide bowl, the pesto/pasta was plated. The mushroom/tomato was put on top. The pan seared scallops went on top with some of the saved shaved Reggiano.

The asparagus was served on the side.

Yup…a fantastic dinner. No plans going into it. Mostly fridge scraps and the offering of “I’ll bring over some scallops.”

And this joins the list of one of the best tasting meals I’ve ever prepared.