Melon with Blackberry Sauce & Pistachios.

Is that really a salad? Well I wittily titled this series "Summer Salads and Some Aren't". Get it? Some are some are not! That's clever writing, huh?

But clever writing or not I still think it's a salad. In fact I'd call it a breakfast salad. Perhaps a new culinary category– but delicious nonetheless. Hey! This could even be a dessert salad...

Okay, so now we have determined that this is indeed a salad. But not all salads need a vinaigrette. Some salads are sauced. In the case of this melon and blackberry salad the dressing is simply blackberries with some lemon juice and a bit of sugar. I infused the sauce with some fresh lemon verbena leaves as well. I think the herbal quality makes this sauce more suited to a sophisticated salad than a banana split sundae.

You could use any melon you like in this salad. You could even mix your melons (now I'm blushing). I chose galia, a green fleshed musk melon that is super sweet this time of year. I made mine into perfectly shaped little melon balls (blushing again) but slices or chunks taste just as delicious.

Crunch is a texture all salads need in some measure. I made that point yesterday when I introduced this week long series of Summer Salads. I also explained exactly what a salad was in my mind. This salad gets its crunch from pistachios. Besides the green color works so well with the melon flesh (now you're blushing).

I was in a creative mood when I made these Seared Scallops with Spicy Blackberry Sauce, Guanciale & Shiitake Risotto. You might even say I was getting a little experimental– as I was trying to recreate a restaurant dish without actually having the recipe.

In the end my recipe has a lot of steps and ingredients, which means it's not for everyone I know. Still, I am not here to apologize for that because this recipe is really just an introduction to what I really want to talk about. Scallops.

Scallops themselves should be simple to make. But they aren't always, are they?

Scallops should be served rare, if you cook them all the way through you are destroying their delicate nature. An overcooked scallop is a rubbery waste of money. But just because I won't submit to an overcooked scallop does not mean I want it improperly cooked either. In fact I like quite a bit of crunchy crusty searing on my scallops.

But how to best achieve this?

Well, choosing good scallops is the first step. Many scallops today are artificially pumped up and waterlogged by a chemical called STP. If possible get scallops without this additive. The proper term for an STP free scallop is "dry". Ask your fish monger if you are unsure. I have a whole post devoted to scallops and STP here.

Yep Really.

I am still wrangling with my obsession with summer fruit. This time it's blackberries. In fact if you yourself were a member of the bramble berry family, you might want to take out a restraining order against me. Because blackberries bring out the Glenn Close in me, and together we will not be ignored. So rather than ignore either one of us, I thought I would play a little summer catch up and use blackberries in ketchup (yikes I am bad writer...).

Now I want to be clear. This condiment is much more ketchup than sauce. And it's certainly not jam because it has a big vinegary bite. There is also enough complex spice in it to make it much more compatible with grilled meat than vanilla ice cream.

But this is no ordinary ketchup concoction. Tomatoes aren't even invited to this show, because the real stars here are the darkest and most luxurious of all the summer berries. The aptly named blackberry.

It's easy to make too. Once you have tasted it I know you'll think of all sorts of ways to serve it. But I wanted to pay honor to its ketchup-y nature so I used mine on a bun with grilled sausage. In this case classic garlic sausage with crunchy red onions and peppery watercress– oozing with intensely flavored blackberry ketchup. Sweet, and spicy with enough umami to make you scream oh, mommy!