Creamy herb linguine with pan-seared scallops

I don’t eat pasta very much (though I eat Asian noodles more often), but it was actually Asian dramas that inspired me to make this dish. How’s that possible, Rice? you might be asking yourself.

Made with fresh herbs from my rooftop garden.

Well, let me tell you.

So. I admit it. I’ve been sucked into the vortex that is Kdrama (Korean Drama). And I blame Netflix (though they’re probably happy with this complain in light of all the other complaints they been getting). My gateway drama was My Princess, which was light and fluffy as an angel food cake. (I regret nothing!) Seriously, it’s super cute. I might not watch it and feel feelings like I do when I watch say, Lawrence of Arabia, but I like it for what it is.

Starring Song Seung Heon and Kim Tae Hee

If you allow me to digress further, Mindy Kaling puts to words how I feel about such romantic comedy fluff:

I like watching people fall in love onscreen so much that I can suspend my disbelief in the contrived situations that occur only in the heightened world of romantic comedies. I have come to enjoy the moment when the male lead, say, slips and falls right on top of the expensive wedding cake. I actually feel robbed when the female lead’s dress doesn’t get torn open at a baseball game while the JumboTron camera is on her. I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world. For me, there is no difference between Ripley from “Alien” and any Katherine Heigl character. They are equally implausible. They’re all participating in a similar level of fakey razzle-dazzle, and I enjoy every second of it.

So, all that said, after I finished My Princess, I moved on to a Kdrama called Pasta. As you might imagine, it features a lot of pasta.

And that’s my story about how I decided to make this pasta dish. Good story, huh? Consider making this meal and sitting down to watch a Kdrama! You might or might not regret it! But as I said, I regret nothing, not even sharing all of this with the blogosphere!

Not sure what I think of the show so far, but the food looks tasty!

Now on to the recipe!

Creamy herbed linguine with pan-seared scallops

Ingredients

• 8 ounces dried linguine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, diced
• 8 ounces clam juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 6 sea scallops
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan or pot, heat oil and sauté garlic until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add clam juice, basil, thyme, and parsley. Cook for 3 minutes. Add cooked pasta and cream to the pot. Toss over medium-high heat until sauce coats pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Rinse and dry sea scallops. Lightly season with salt and pepper. In a medium-high frying pan, melt butter and add scallops to hot pan, cooking for about 3 minutes on each side until golden. Remove from heat and serve on top of pasta.

Tags: linguine, pasta, scallops, seafood