Scallops & Crab Sauce Gemelli
Mystic, CT is a place very near and dear to my heart. My husband and I went there on our very first vacation together close to 27 years ago. We were young and clueless and hungry for new experiences. I can’t honestly remember which restaurant we went to that weekend back in 1994 but I remember that I tried scallops for the first time. I was spoiled instantly because the scallops in Mystic are some of the best I have had: fresh from the boat and cooked simply to showcase the natural deliciousness of them.
Mystic is still “our place”. We now live close enough to get there in under an hour, hang out, have lunch and still get back home in time to feed & walk the dogs. We often take these quick, little trips to just escape back to our youth for a few hours.
This recipe is a combination of things I’ve tasted in different restaurants tailored to my own taste. I love both scallops and crab and they play well together.
Scallops & Crab Sauce Gemelli
Ingredients
- 1 lb. scallops – pat them dry; the drier, the better the caramelization
- 1 can of crab meat (lump, claw whatever you find)
- 1 lb. pasta – I used gemelli but you can use whatever pasta you prefer
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- zest from 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream
- 1 cup of white wine
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- Basil & parsley, chopped
- salt & pepper to taste
Directions
- In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add pasta and boil according to the instructions on the package. Save 1 cup of the pasta water before draining; we will use it for thickening the sauce.
- Dry the scallops really well by patting them with paper towels. Heat the oil in a sauté pan; when shimmering (the pan needs to be hot), add the scallops to the pan (I salt the scallops right before adding to the hot pan, you don’t want to salt them any earlier, the salt will draw out moisture from the scallop). Sauté for 1 min and then turn over. Add the butter now to the pan and sauté for another minute or until you get a nice color on the scallop. Remove cooked scallops to a plate.
- Add the shallot and the garlic to the pan. Cook for about 2-3 min, stirring often. You want the garlic golden, not burned. Add the mustard and the wine. Cook for another 3-5 min, until wine has cooked down a little.
- Add the crab and the heavy cream to the pan, Season with salt and pepper. You want the crab to be just heated through since it’s already cooked and the cream to slightly thicken. Add the lemon zest and chopped herbs.
- Add the cooked pasta and adjust the consistency of the sauce by adding small amounts of the leftover pasta water. The starch in the water will make the sauce thicken and cling better to the pasta.
All photos are the work of my very talented, professional photographer husband, Dariusz Terepka.