Seafood to Fill Up any Meat and Potatoes Man

When I think of seafood, I tend to think of a nice light summer meal.  Well, we had an opportunity to take a two week hiatus from life and spend the end of August/beginning of September on the coast on NC and honestly, we needed to "hearty" up our light, summer seafood meals.  I LOVE seafood, especially scallops, and am not the biggest fan of heavy dishes consisting of red meat unlike my meat and potatoes hubby, so we got a little creative for our vaca dinners.

I find pasta an easy way to "hearty" up a meal.  So, here is what we did to create the meaty, hearty, creamy and oh so yummy "Scallops on Steroids" Pasta dish.

DISCLAIMER:  Not your one pot meal or on the weight watchers plan.

For the Base of the dish...
Diced Red Pepper (1/2 a pepper)
Diced Onion (to your liking, enough to create the savory onion base)
Minced Garlic
Chopped Asparagus (a few handfuls)
Chopped Mushrooms - I like lots of 'shrooms so I use a full container...and they cook down
Start with a few pads of butter and oil in a large sautee pan.  Once the pan is hot, add pepper, onion and cook for a few minutes.  Then add your garlic and cook a few minutes longer.  Then add your mushrooms and asparagus and slowly start to cook.   

While you are cooking your base, start the pasta; I use Linguini or Fettuccine; and start your sauce.  This takes a bit of juggling or a fantastic sous chef (thanks Chuck!).

For Your Sauce...
Heavy Cream 
Cream Cheese (at least I use 1/3 less fat) - softened
Sour Cream (and I use the Light version)
Slowly heat about 1/2 cup or so of the heavy cream in a sauce pan, you want to heat it slowly so it does not burn.  A little later you will add your cream cheese and sour cream but this is where the juggling starts...

Take about a pound of FRESH scallops, pat them dry and dust with salt and pepper.  Turn your heat up to medium on your saute pan containing your base.  Once hot, move your veggies over to the side and sear your scallops - about 2-3 minutes per side.

Back to the Sauce...
Once your scallops are searing, add 1/2 block of cream cheese and a few tablespoons of sour cream to your warm heavy cream. (Hey, you read the disclaimer...not a "skinny girl" dinner)  Stir until creamy.  Add salt, pepper and a little nutmeg (Shhhh.  It's a secret ingredient).

By now you should have flipped your scallops and found a perfect sear!  I remove the scallops once cooked.  Add splash of white wine to the pan to de-glaze a bit.  Add your white cream sauce and stir.  The sauce will blend with the wine, butter/oil and veggies to create a creamy, rich blanket for your pasta.

Preparation...
Place your pasta in a large bowl, top with sauce and veggie mixture.  Carefully place 3-4 seared scallops on the mountain of goodness.  Decorate with crumbled bacon.

Now that is how to make a hearty, seafood dish good enough to fill up any meat and potatoes man!