Scallop Piccata with sauteed spinach

Sorry folks, no spinach on these plates.  The hubs hates wilted greens so we did not make that part of the dish.  But he does love piccata!  We've made several CL variations on the theme before, but have only used chicken. So this was our first experiment with scallop piccata and it was totally worth it!  Think fresh scallops are expensive? We used Trader Joe's frozen scallops (the whole bag), which I believe cost us maybe 5-7 dollars.  I'm sure fresh scallops would have been divine, but these were good enough for us to love it.

We tossed our scallops with some angel hair pasta, as recommended.

There's a reason why 17 reviewers gave this a 5 out of 5, um it's because this is delicious!

The only change we made to this recipe was to use sweet vermouth rather than dry. The recipe doesn't say  but I think dry vermouth is typically used in cooking dishes.  We only had sweet vermouth leftover from our wedding and decided to give it a shot. Otherwise we will just have vermouth lying around until it is covered in 5 layers of dust.  And you know what? It didn't matter, it was still delicious!

This dish really took me back to the honeymoon in Greece.  The combination of capers and lemon with the chewiness of the scallop reminded me of a dish they have called saganaki.  Saganaki is basically a fried cheese served with lemon and capers. Yum.

Recipe by Ivy Manning, Cooking Light, November 2009

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1/3 cup spinach, 3 scallops, and 1 1/2 tablespoons sauce)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  pounds  sea scallops (about 12)
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 5  teaspoons  canola oil, divided
• 1  garlic clove, chopped
• 1/2  cup  vermouth
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley
• 2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 4  teaspoons  capers
• 1  (10-ounce) package fresh baby spinach

Preparation

1. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper over scallops. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add scallops; cook 2 minutes on each side or until browned and done. Remove from pan; keep warm.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add chopped garlic to pan; cook 10 seconds. Add vermouth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add parsley, fresh lemon juice, butter, and capers, stirring until butter melts. Pour sauce in a bowl.
3. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add spinach; sauté 30 seconds or until spinach almost wilts. Drizzle sauce over scallops; serve with spinach.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 275

Fat: 13.1g (sat 4.2g,mono 5g,poly 2.5g)

Protein: 30.9g

Carbohydrate: 8.3g

Fiber: 1.8g

Cholesterol: 71mg

Iron: 2.8mg

Sodium: 607mg

Calcium: 122mg