Scallops in Tomato Sauce

I like to make Scallops in Tomato Sauce time to time. It's very easy and so delicious, there's no way anyone can mess this recipe up. I picked up a bag of wild jumbo scallops from Trader Joe's, I think they were about $11.99 for the bag.

I had to defrost them, I left them in the fridge during the day while at work. When I came home, I put the scallop bag in a steel bowl filled with cool water. Once they were fully defrosted, I pat dry the scallops with a paper towel. I then placed them in a dish, as seen above. Covered it with saran wrap and put it back into the fridge.

Luckily for the sauce, I am able to use my dads homemade tomato sauce, which he makes once a year at the end of the summer with plum tomato's. In a small pot, I added about 3oz of extra virgin olive oil. I then put in  3oz of chopped onions and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. I put the stove on medium heat and let it cook for a few minutes. Once the oil begins to bubble, I like to add a few leaves of fresh basil. Just make sure you don't let the garlic and onions burn, you will want to keep them at their original color. All we are doing here, is letting the olive oil absorb the flavors from the garlic, onions and basil. After a few minutes of frying, put about 2 cups of tomato sauce into the pot. Now you will want to cook this tomato sauce for about 15 minutes on low to medium heat. Don't let it boil too much, you need to let it cook slowly. After the sauce has cooked for about 5 minutes, put in the scallops. The scallops only need to cook for 10 minutes. What I like to do is taste one of the scallops at the 15 minute mark to make sure they are properly cooked, if not, I let them cook a little longer. Over cooking scallops can make them really tough and chewy, this is not what we want. We want them to be tender, so make sure you don't over cook them!

At this point you can start boiling water for the pasta. For this dish, I used Linguine. You may use whichever pasta you like. I even sometimes use Japanese Udon noodles. Once the pasta is done cooking, strain it and put a portion into a dish or bowl.

Pour some sauce over the Linguine and add a few scallops to top it off. I sometimes add a few more fresh leaves of basil over linguine and scallops to give it more flavor.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe!