Oh my, was the tomato-basil dressing tasty. So much so that I could have happily eaten it, standing up at the stove, dipping crusty baguette directly into the pan. It was nutty and fishy and smoky and sweet and sticky and made the tomatoes taste like all tomatoes should. It was very simple to make and took under 5 minutes to cook, the only caveat being that you have to have everything chopped and ready to go because there are a few minutes of pandemonium at the end to get timing right.
If serving this with corn-edamame succotash as I did, reserve a tablespoon of the bacon fat and use it instead of one of the tablespoons of butter. It added a smokiness to the dish that I liked but I am sure that it would have been equally delicious in an all butter version. I cooked the scallops in the pan in which I had cooked the bacon and scrapped up all the brown bits into my sauce. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Truly.
1 lb of best scallops you can find, dry diver being the ultimate
2 large summer tomatoes, roughly chopped, seeds and all
1 large handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 Tbsps butter or 1 Tbsp butter + 1 Tbsp bacon fat
Salt and white pepper to taste
Pat the scallops dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper lightly on each side. Set aside.
In a skillet large enough to hold all of your scallops, melt the butter (or the butter into the bacon fat in the pan) over low heat. Stir constantly until the butter is very frothy, is a light brown and smells nutty. If using the pan in which you cooked bacon, take this opportunity to scrape all of the brown bits off of the bottom of the pan into the butter.
Increase the heat to medium. Add the scallops to the pan and cook for 90 seconds on each side without moving them so that they can develop a slight crust.
After 3 minutes, working as fast as you can, remove all of the scallops from the pan and tip in the chopped tomatoes and basil. Stir to combine with the remaining butter and scallop juices and scrapping the bottom of the pan to incorporate all of the umami rich brown bits. This sauce with cook, thicken and reduce within a minute or two so you need to stir constantly to keep the juices from sticking or burning.
As soon as the tomato pieces are heated through, turn off the heat and check for seasoning. Portion out your scallops (on top of the succotash is pretty if you are serving) and top with some of the tomato-basil dressing. 1 lb of scallops should allow for a portion of about 4 scallops per person (which turns an expensive ingredient an affordable one), but this is a strangely rich dish and the females of the party (greedy me included) could only eat 2 each.
Inspiration recipe here.