fettuccine

Hot Peas & Cold Butter Make a Silky Sauce for Grilled Scallops & Fettuccine

18 May 2011
Grilled Scallops with Fettuccine and Butter Peas Sauce

When I was making this I gotta tell you my mind was going in about a million different directions. It's technically what I call default pasta because I made it up as I went along and I used just a few ingredients that I had on hand. Including these super fresh, straight from the Farmers Market sweet English peas.

It's a super simple but elegant first course. Peas, butter, frozen scallops, a few fresh herbs, and pasta. My brother Grant paired this with Cantina di Monteforte "Re Teodorico" Soave 2009, so the beginning of a memorable meal was in the making.

But my mind wasn't on making memories, it was being flooded by memories...

You see the whole thing started because I was making this meal while I was listening to some cable pundit talking about "kids today" and all the crazy stuff they are up to. The guy on TV was trying to make the point that kids today have an exaggerated sense of invulnerability and are far more likely to participate in dangerous activities than the kids from previous generations. Like the kids say, from my generation. Naturally he blamed video games for the deterioration of childhood innocence.

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Grilled Scallops and Fettuccine with English Pea Butter Sauce

Grilled Scallops and Fettuccine with English Pea Butter Sauce
By jgreghenry Published May 17, 2011
Prep time: 45
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 c shelled fresh, small english peas
  • 0 salt, as needed
  • 2 shallots, minced
  • 1 c white wine
  • 1 c plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 2 T mint leaves, minced
  • 0.5 lb fettuccine
  • 12 sea scallops, tough muscles removed
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 0 black pepper, to taste
  • 1 t fresh thyme leaves, minced

Directions

Prepare an ice bath. Put the peas into a medium sauce pan and cover with cool water. Add about 2 teaspoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook until tender but still bright green, about 6 minutes. Drain the peas and plunge them into the ice bath to stop cooking. Strain. Puree the peas using a food mill or food processor, you may need to add a teaspoon or water or so. You want a consistency that is neither pasty nor watery. Set aside. Combine the shallots and wine in a medium non-reactive sauce pan set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Lower the heat and gradually whisk in 1-cup of the butter, one or two pieces at a time. When the butter has been incorporated, remove the sauce from the heat. Strain the butter sauce and discard the solids. Return the sauce to the saucepan. Scrape the pea puree into the saucepan with the butter sauce and add half of the minced mint, stirring until fully incorporated. Cover and set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fettuccine and cook according to package instructions until al dente. While the pasta cooks grill the scallops. Heat the grill or grill pan to medium-high. Toss the scallops with 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl until they are well coated. Season with salt and pepper. Lay the scallops on the grates of the grill or grill pan. They should sizzle. Do not crowd the scallops, work in batches if necessary. Grill them on one side until the scallops develop golden brown grill marks, about 1 to 2 minutes. Then turn them once and continue cooking another minute or so longer. They just be barely cooked through and rare. Remove from grill and allow them to rest while you finish the pasta. Drain the pasta and quickly move it to a large bowl. Allow a small amount of the cooking water to come along. Add the minced thyme, remaining mint and remaining butter. Toss well. To serve gently warm the peas sauce over low heat and then spoon a small amount of onto 6 warmed plates or shallow bowls. Swirl some of the pasta into a compact shape and place it next to the sauce. Top with 2 scallops per plate and serve.

Notes:

serves 6

Default Pasta: Chicken Livers with Truffles, Pink Peppercorns & S.Pellegrino

02 Feb 2010
ingredients for chicken liver pasta

Quick boil some water!

No I'm not having a baby– it's Default Pasta Night!

At my house Default Pasta makes regular appearances. In fact I'd even go so far as to call these appearances star turns. That's because learning how to bring forth quick, flavorful weeknight meals can be a lifesaver, and a toe-tapper as you will see.

There are a lot of good reasons to master the concept of Default Pasta. Maybe you have not been to the grocery store for weeks and the fridge and pantry are pretty bare. But never fear, because if you follow my rules for Default Pasta you can make any meal special.

Of course in my world (well, most of our worlds really) Default Pasta Night happens at the end of a long day, you are tired, hungry and just want to turn the TV on and sing and dance along with Glee. Singing and dancing with hot soup is hell on the carpet, and you are sure to burn your vocal chords. That's where the Default Pasta rules come in and that's what the pot of boiling water I used as my opening hook is for; cooking dried pasta, the greatest friend a weeknight cook has ever had.

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