Eight ingredients, plus pantry staples. That's all it takes to make an entire meal from scratch. Add in a good bottle of wine for less than $20, and you've got a feast for family or friends.
Let’s get more adventurous at the fish counter: Break free from the standard salmon filets and stir-fried shrimp and bring more shellfish into your home-cooking repertoire to make weeknight meals more interesting. For those wanting to ease into the deep end, this recipe for sea scallops—dressed in a butter and tomato sauce—makes a great entry point. Paired with an Italian Chardonnay from Alto Adige-Trentino, this dish can serve as a weeknight treat or an easy-but-impressive dinner party dish.
I tend to gravitate to scallops at wine bars and tapas spots, as they are great companions to most wines I throw at them and always feel special. Scallops might appear daunting to make at home, but that’s only because they cook so fast—changing from juicy and supple to chewy and stringy in the blink of an eye. To avoid that, this recipe only exposes the scallops to direct heat on one side; they are then finished with the residual heat from the tomato sauce. While this recipe is intended for two, the dish can be scaled up easily for more people. (Rule of thumb: four to six sea scallops, or around a quarter of a pound, per person.)
What makes this dish into a full meal, instead of an appetizer, is the tomato sauce. Inspired by Marcella Hazan’s famous butter tomato sauce, this take uses burst cherry tomatoes and is finished with cold salted butter towards the end, emulsifying into a creamy yet fresh sauce that complements the sweet scallops. Other readily available ingredients and pantry items are added to the pan—red chile flakes, shallots, garlic and a splash of the wine you’re drinking with dinner—to create a sauce that tastes like you put in more effort than the 20 minutes or so the dish takes to cook. To round out the plate, the sauce calls for something to sop it up, whether that be a fresh slice of bread or a scoop of polenta or risotto.
Scallops are an incredibly versatile, wine-friendly food; depending on the flavors they are cooked with, they can be paired with anything from brut sparklers to Northern Rhône reds. For this recipe, try a cool-climate Chardonnay, like the Peter Zemmer Chardonnay Alto Adige 2023 (89 points, $19), hailing from Northern Italy’s Dolomite mountains. This white is crisp and fresh, but still full of plump, ripe fruit, thanks to a brief maceration before being pressed. That roundness matches the sweetness of the tomatoes and scallops, while the wine still has enough backbone to cut through the butter and savory elements.
Sea Scallops with Butter and Tomato Sauce
Pair with a light-bodied, lively Italian Chardonnay, such as the Peter Zemmer Chardonnay Alto Adige 2023 (89, $19) from Northern Italy.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Approximate food costs: $25
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound large scallops (around 4 per person)
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons red chile flakes
- 1 large shallot
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes (either red, yellow or a mix)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 2 tablespoons cold salted butter
Preparation
1. Trim off the side muscle from each scallop. (The side muscle looks like a little flap or tag on the scallop—these can be guided off with a small paring knife, or gently ripped off with your fingers.) Pat each side of the scallop dry with a paper towel and season the scallops generously with salt on both sides. Set aside while doing the rest of the prep work. Dice the shallot and garlic super-fine and slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Set those aside separately.
2. Add the olive oil to a sauté pan and bring to medium-high heat. While the oil warms, give the scallops one last pat with a paper towel, ensuring all sides are as dry as possible. (If the scallops are not dry going into the pan, it will be impossible to get a sear.) Season the scallops with pepper and add to the now-hot olive oil, round side down. Leave the scallops undisturbed for three minutes, then check them occasionally until they gain a golden-brown “crust.” Once the scallops are seared, remove them immediately from the pan and set aside, golden side up.
3. Once the scallops are removed from the pan, add the red chile flakes, shallots and garlic to the olive oil. Sweat them until fragrant and they start to become translucent, around 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sauté for around 2 minutes, salting to taste. Bring the heat down to medium and cover; let sit for around 5 minutes until the juices release from the tomatoes. Add the white wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan, stirring to incorporate until the alcohol cooks off, around three minutes. Then add the cold butter, stirring to emulsify.
4. Nestle the scallops into the sauce with the seared side up and bring the temperature down low, covering for 2 minutes to bring the scallops up to temperature (115°F). Remove from the heat and serve. Serves 2.
