My First Scallops, with zucchini and pasta

prepping the marinade


scallops in marinate


heating up the olive oil


sauteeing the onions and fennel in olive oil


scallops in the pan


reducing splatter


adding the zucchini and tomato


dressing the pasta


scallops with zucchini and pasta

I cooked scallops tonight! It was my very first time! And it was good!

I have to admit that most sea food intimidates me, at least when it comes to cooking. It's the timing that scared me. Just minutes, and it's ruined. An overcooked scallop is an inedible rubbery thing. Yuck!

But my 10-year-old loves scallops. So I decided to attempt them. She also requested that I try to make them a slightly spicy.

We got some lovely scallops from Drewes. They're an old-fashioned butcher shop in Noe Valley, and carry sustainable sea food and fish, as well as free-range meats.

I opened up the bag of scallops, and bravely faced my culinary fears. I quickly figured out what to do, and started right away on the marinate and getting the scallops into it. Improvising with familiar flavors for the marinate, I tossed together olive oil, red onion, roasted red peppers, garlic, fresh basil, salt, and fresh ground pepper. Then I remembered that lemon on the counter, so I squeezed in juice from half of it. I saved the juice from the other half to squeeze over the scallops for when they're ready to serve.

While the scallops were marinating, I got some olive oil in a pan with pancetta. I want to render the fat, so I kept the heat really low. This can take a while.

When the pancetta browned, I added the red onion and fennel for a quick saute. I just want to soften them up a bit, and then I took them out of the pan and save them for later.

Now I'm ready to cook the scallops. I know they should only cook for 2-3 minutes per side. But I was still a little nervous. This is my first time.

I cranked up the heat on the pan, to get it very hot when I add the scallops. Hoping to get a nice crust on the top and bottom of the scallop, and keep the pan hot, I only put in five scallops at a time.

After the scallops were all done, I added a teaspoon of flour and stired for a few minutes to thicken the sauce...just a little.

Next, I deglazed with a glass of chardonnay, making sure to get all those brown bits into the sauce. I made sure to let the alcohol boil off a bit, and then I added the solids the scallops were marinating with.

The onions and fennel I'd softened up earlier go back into the pan, followed by the zucchini with roasted red peppers and capers. I put the cover on, and turn down the heat.

By now, the water I'd started earlier, had come to a vigorous boil and it was time to start the pasta. Now, I'm a big fan of a local brand of pasta (Eduardo's), and I keep several pasta shapes in my pantry at all times. Tonight, I thought a fettuccine was called for and was happy to find it in my pantry. Eduardo's fettuccine takes 6-8 minutes to cook, so I set my timer for 7 minutes. As usual, when the timer chimed, the pasta was perfectly done.

While the pasta was draining, I put the scallops in the sauce...for just a quick warm up. To serve, I added pasta to the sauce and swished it around a bit with my tongs, making sure the pasta was completely coated with the lovely light sauce.

A little pasta in the shallow bowl. Veggies and scallops on top. In the end, it was all super tasty. Both my 10-year-old and 5-year-old gobbled it up, and asked for more scallops.

I admit that the scallops were slightly overcooked, by maybe half a minute. While certainly not rubbery, they weren't perfectly tender. Oh well. It my first try. They'll be even better next time.