Diver Scallops with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes & Spinach

This time of year, I’m lucky to have enough time and energy to turn on the stove let alone create some intricate, time-consuming blog dinner. It’s clearly the busiest time of year for retail wine sales (I’m not complaining) and it’s hard to even take a deep breath until January 1st. I still wanted to get something on the plate/blog from now until Christmas so I limited myself to just a few ingredients and just a few minutes in the kitchen.

I picked up some baby, super sweet, yellow tomatoes, spinach, and fresh diver scallops; three ingredients, relying on anything else I had leftover in my fridge and pantry. I aggressively ripped open the package of tomatoes, sliced the last clove of garlic I had, a pinch of salt, pepper and a glug of olive oil, all tossed into a small pan and popped into a 375 degree oven. I felt like I was in the middle of a Top Chef, quickfire challenge except the prize wasn’t $5,000 but rather an extra thirty minutes relaxing on the couch.

I roasted the tomatoes until the paper thin skins wilted and they started to slowly implode. Once this occurs, the pan gets filled with sweet tomato juice and it starts to reduce and thicken into a beautiful, bright orange tomato sauce.


The liquid and the extra virgin olive oil creates a syrupy, garlicky emulsion, perfect for a simple, quick sauce. In the meantime, I sautéed some baby spinach with oil and lemon zest and got my sauté’ pan screaming hot for my diver scallops. These scallops were huge and smelled incredibly fresh and sweet. Before I seared them in the hot pan, I made sure to pat them dry with a paper towel to make sure all of the excess liquid is gone to prevent the scallop from steaming as opposed to searing. This is the best way to achieve that dark brown, caramelized crust.

This literally takes two minutes. Don’t even think about turning your scallop… just let it sear until it’s cooked all the way through. You’ll appreciate the beautiful sear by demonstrating severe patience and flipping restraint.


That’s it… dinner is served. Arguably the easiest meal that I’ve ever made on the blog. I garnished the scallop with a spring of fresh chervil and dusted the pile of spinach with some lemon zest.

It took literally 12 minutes from start to finish and left my wife in shock that we weren’t sitting down to eat at ten o’clock again. To celebrate the fact that despite being exhausted, we were able to sit on the couch, watch a Christmas movie, and still be in bed by 10pm, I paired this simple dish with a bottle of Prosecco.

The Voveti is one of the few Proseccos made in the brut style, which is much drier than typical Prosecco. I wouldn’t classify Prosecco as sweet by any means, but it tends to be fruiter than a classic Brut Champagne. This D.O.C “bottle of bubb”, is bone dry and crisp with flavors of granny smith apples, lemon, and yeasty bread dough. Light and refreshing to celebrate the simplicity that was on the plate in front of us. The sweet scallop rested upon the warm, acidic yet slightly rich sauce and the bitter greens were freshened up with the hints of lemon.

Unfortunately no time to hit the kitchen means no time to hit treadmill as well, so this meal was perfect for a late December special. Stay tuned for the most decadent, lavish, over-the-top New Years Eve dinner party in the history of New Years Eve dinner parties. Happy holidays to all and may your stomachs and glasses always be full!





























































































