Sea Scallops with Warm Tomato-Basil Dressing

Messy looking, but - oh my - was the warm tomato-basil dressing tasty, even before I tasted it with the scallops. I could have happily eaten the dressing, standing up at the stove, dipping pieces of buttered baguette directly into the pan. It was nutty and fishy and smoky and sweet and sticky and made the tomatoes taste like all tomatoes should. It was simple to make and took under 5 minutes to cook, the only caveat being that you have to have everything chopped and ready to go because there are a few minutes of pandemonium at the end to get timing right.

I cooked the scallops in the pan in which I had cooked the bacon and scrapped up all the brown bits into my sauce. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Truly.

3 of the very best scallops you can find, dry diver being the ultimate

1/2 a large heirloom tomato, roughly chopped, seeds and all, or grated

2 rashers of bacon, cooked until crisp and then crumbled and set aside (reserve a tsp of the rendered fat in the pan to cook the scallops in, arteries be damned)

1 handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped

2 tsps butter

Salt and white pepper to taste

Cook the bacon. Set aside, reserving a teaspoon of the rendered fat in the pan to cook the scallops.

Pat the scallops dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper lightly on each side. Set aside.

Heat the pan again. As soon as it is very hot and the bacon grease is shimmering and bubbling at the edges, add the scallops to the pan and cook for 90 seconds on each side without moving them so that they can develop a slight crust. 

As soon as the scallops have cooked on both sides, working as fast as you can, remove them from the pan and tip in the chopped tomato and basil. Then, add the butter and, as it melts, stir to combine with the scallop and tomato juices in the pan, while scrapping the bottom of the pan to incorporate all of the umami rich brown bits into the liquid. This sauce will thicken and reduce within a quick minute, so you need to stir constantly to keep the juices from sticking or burning.

As soon as the tomato based sauce is bubbling at the edges, turn off the heat and check for seasoning.

Add the scallops to a plate and spoon the pipping hot sauce over them before tossing on the crumbled bacon.

I served this with a "succotash" of corn and edamame, but - quite frankly - crusty buttered bread and a side salad would be the best route to take for this.