Two restaurant quality dishes that I find most people are wary to make at home are seared scallops and lamb chops. When actually, all you have to do for both proteins is sear them stove-top on both sides. I encourage you to try making both at home to impress your next round of dinner guests, or to surprise your family with an elegant weeknight dinner.

Take scallops for example; once you find high quality, jumbo sea scallops all you need is a hot pan, a touch of butter and olive oil and your trusty kitchen tongs.  They sear in the hot pan for about 1-1/2 minutes on one side (until caramelized and lovely) and then you flip them and cook them for about 30 additional seconds. Serve them on a bed of risotto, spaghetti squash, or like in this recipe, over al dente pasta with a simple tomato sauce studded with briny olives.

(To view this recipe, click on the blue title of the blog post above*)

Tagged: fettuccine, fresh tomato sauce, olive-tomato sauce, olives, pasta, scallop pasta, scallops, sea scallops, seared scallops, tomato sauce, tomatoes