Pan Seared Scallops with Pasilla-Shallot Sauce
   

• 1 lb diver or large sea scallops
• 4 Pasilla peppers, roasted and diced
• 2 Anaheim peppers, roasted and diced
• 4 Shallots, diced
• ¼ cup white wine (give or take – you can’t really screw this up)
• Reggiano
• 4 TBS Butter

Begin by rinsing sea scallops and removing the small tough muscle found on one side of each scallop. If you don’t peel this piece off, it will be tough and stringy when cooked. Pat scallops completely dry.

Melt butter in a large skillet on low heat. Turn heat up to medium. When the butter finishes foaming and is completely melted and achieves that nutty aroma, carefully add scallops one-by-one in a single layer. This part gets tricky because of the way most supermarket-bought scallops are packed with additional water – this packing method really disrupts the ability to cook a perfect scallop because the scallop is continually leaking out more water during the searing, which is bad. If you see this happening while searing the first side of the scallops, remove the scallops from the pan after the first side has achieved its brown caramelization color and allow the excess water to boil off. Then add the scallops back to the pan, raw side down, to sear the other side. When both sides are browned and cooked and the middle is still white, the scallops are finished. Remove them from the pan while you make the sauce.

Prepare the peppers by halving them and cleaning out all ribs and seeds. Lay out a sheet of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan). Roast under the oven broiler. Rotate the pan, if needed, for even roasting. Roast until the top of the peppers begin to turn black and bubble – about 15 minutes. When peppers are roasted, remove them from the oven. Fold foil up around them securely and let them sweat for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the peppers from the foil and peel off the skins. Then dice the remaining pepper meat.

Dice the shallots. Add the diced peppers and shallots to the now-empty scallops pan. Saute for a few minutes till shallots start to turn opaque. Now add the white wine and deglaze the pan, making sure to scrape all the leftover scallop pieces from the bottom of the pan. Let this mixture simmer and combine for a few minutes. Turn the heat off. Add the scallops back in and toss thoroughly.

Serve on a bed of al dente farfalle and finish with fresh grated reggiano parmesan.