Recipe: Garlic Butter Pan-Fried Scallops with Capellini & Asparagus
This meal was like a 🎉 in your mouth. I’m typically pretty basic when it comes to incorporating the 4 building blocks (protein, extra fat source, high-quality carb, non-starchy veggie) into my meals, but my mom’s birthday called for an extra fancy balanced meal.
This came out so good for still being relatively quick and simple, so I just had to share it. I’ve already made it again 4 times since making it for my mom’s birthday!
Ingredients:
1 package jovial capellini brown rice pasta (Jovial soaks their brown rice prior to making it into pasta, improving digestibility)
2 bunches asparagus
1/4 cup grass-fed butter
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 pounds of wild sea scallops, rinsed & patted dry
3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Splash of raw cream (optional)
Juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon, to taste
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated (this cheese is always raw!), for topping
Directions:
Wash and trim the asparagus, place in steamer pot, don’t turn on the heat until you start cooking the pasta
Get the pasta cooking, follow package instructions for cooking time
While the pasta and asparagus are cooking, melt the butter in a 12-inch frying pan over medium heat (don’t make it too hot or the butter will burn)
Add the garlic to the pan and stir into the butter, cook until the garlic becomes soft, about 1 minute
Add the scallops to the pan, flat side down, then sprinkle the basil and parsley over the scallops
Let the scallops cook for 2-3 minutes on that side (depending on thickness), before flipping them
Cook the for another 2-3 minutes on the other side; use an instant thermometer to check for doneness (aim for a temp of 145 F)
During this time, keep an eye on the asparagus to make sure they don’t over steam
Once the scallops have finished cooking, turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and raw cream; add salt and pepper to taste and give the entire pan contents a good stir
When the pasta is done cooking, drain it then give it a thorough rinse (helps decrease any potential arsenic content); mix a small amount of butter into the pasta to keep it from getting sticky
When plating, make sure to serve with all the buttery sauce goodness from the scallop pan and sprinkle some of that parmigiano reggiano cheese over the top, it’s a game changer 💥
Potential variations: this would work with peeled and deveined shrimp too, but the shrimp would only need to cook for 1-2 min, depending on the size.
Let me know if you make this and how it turns out!
