One of my favorite things about having a vegetable garden is the forced creativity. What I mean by this is when you are faced with a garden filled with produce ready-to-be-picked, you have to put that thinking cap on and find new and interesting ways to eat everything. Right now, we are picking tomatoes everyday as well as fresh French sorrel.
Channeling the south of France I decided to use the lemony sorrel as the colorful base for this dish, along with ripe slices of roasted tomatoes flavored with herbes de Provence and sliced garlic. And for the protein? Seared scallops that I coated in finely chopped Marcona almonds for crunch. Served with a drizzling of quality balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes, this truly was garden creativity at its best!
(To view this recipe, click on the blue title of the blog post above*)
Marcona Almond-Crusted Scallops with Provençal Tomatoes
Ingredients:
- 12 jumbo sea scallops, side muscle removed
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup Marcona almonds, finely chopped in food processor
- Fresh sorrel, or baby spinach
- 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- Herbes de provence
- Balsamic vinegar
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Arrange the sliced tomatoes in a single layer on the pan. Season with a pinch fo salt and pepper and a pinch of herbes de Provence on each tomato. Arrange the sliced garlic evenly on the tomatoes as well.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until tender. In the meantime, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan. Season each of the scallops with a pinch of salt and pepper. Place in the hot pan and cook for 1 ½ minutes on the first side, then flip and cook for 1 minute more. Dip each cooked scallop into the chopped almonds.
- Arrange the sorrel on the serving plate, then the baked tomato slices. Top with the cooked scallops. Drizzle a touch of vinegar over the tomatoes and serve warm.
Tagged: almond-crusted scallops, almonds, garlic, herbes de provence, Marcona almonds, Provencal, Provencal tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, scallops, sea scallops, seared scallops, sorrel, tomatoes
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