Start by sweating the diced shallots and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.  Then add diced tomatoes and a few pinches of salt & pepper.  Mix thoroughly and turn the heat down to low.  Cover pan with tight fitting lid and allow tomatoes, shallots and garlic to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are thoroughly cooked down, but still retain some of their diced shape.  If I had more time, I would have blanched and skinned the tomatoes before dicing them, but it works just fine if you don’t.  To finish the pan sauce, add finely chopped sweet basil and a couple more tablespoons of EVOO.

While you were doing all of this, you should have been cooking a pound of angel hair pasta in salted water.  Drain the pasta well and add to pan with tomato/basil sauce and toss to thoroughly combine.

 

 

Now, it’s time to move on to the scallops.  Pan searing scallops is pretty straightforward and it doesn’t take very long (that’s why I don’t have any pics of this part of the recipe).  Rinse your scallops briefly in cold water then pat them dry.  I put some Oakridge BBQ Game Bird & Chicken rub in a shallow dish and dipped each scallop into it so it covered both flat sides but stayed mostly off the other sides.  Next, heat about a half stick of butter (not margarine, use real butter) in a 10 inch fry pan over medium high heat until it just begins to brown.  Then, set your scallops in the hot butter and cook them on one rubbed side for about 3 minutes.  With a pair of tongs, gently flip them over onto the other rubbed flat side and continue to cook them for another 3 minutes.  Pull them from the pan, dust with a tiny bit more Game Bird & Chicken rub, and plate them up.  And that’s it.  Here’s what it looked like…