Lemon-Herb Spaghetti with Scallops

We needed some simple dinners this past week, so I pulled a few staples from the crisper and we got chopping.  I wanted to do something that would use the duxelles we made earlier in the week, and scallops were on sale at the store.  Since they don't take long to cook, we went for an easy pasta dish.  The nice thing about pasta is that you can make a double batch and dress it up differently the next night, so lemon-herb-scallops tonight, red sauce with meatballs the next.

First things first, I put my son in charge of the giant pot of pasta.

I put the scallops in a colander between layers of paper towles to get them as dry as possible.  If you put them wet and gloppy in the pan, they tend to overcook by stewing in their own juice.

Next, I put my daughter in charge of chopping (herbs) while I minced (garlic) and squeezed (lemon).

When all that was ready, we heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan and let it get hot enough so you could see the ripples in the surface of the oil.  We added the scallops and let them cook quickly.  As soon as they got opaque, about 4 minutes total, I lifted then from the pan and, leaving only a little bit of the juices, quickly sauted the garlic and herbs, about 1 minute.  Then we added about 1/2 cup of the duxelles and let them warm up.

I added about 2 cups of chicken stock and the lemon juice and let the whole pan warm up, then turned it off.

Meanwhile, some frozen peas went into the microwave.

When the peas and pasta were both ready, they went into the saucepan with the scallops and we brought it to a boil, then served it up.

You could make this recipe without the scallops or with another protein in its place, but the scallops reminded of the linguini with clam sauce my grandparents used to make.