Risotto With Scallops: Risotto con Capesante

For this recipe I first used bay scallops, which are a small type of scallops, but you could certainly use sea scallops, then cut them into smaller sizes, which is what I did about a week later when I made the dish again. I say "smaller sizes," because sea scallops have quite a variation in size, with some being the diameter of a golf ball, while others can be the diameter of a baseball or even larger.

 

The risotto should not be dry, nor should it be runny, but rather it should be creamy. The important thing is to keep stirring the rice, as this process removes some of the starchy coating of the rice to help add the creaminess to the risotto. Arborio rice is a great variety of rice to use for risotto. Arborio rice originally came from northwestern Italy in the area around Turin (Italian: Torino) and a little town named "Arborio." The rice is now also grown elsewhere in the world, including in the United States. 

Ingredients:

 

1 pound scallops

4 tablespoons butter (divided use)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

1 1/3 cups dry white wine

2 cups clam (or seafood) broth

2 cups vegetable stock 

good pinch of salt

(optional) the top 1 1/2 inches of each spear from 1 pound of asperagus 

 

In a skillet over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add the scallops and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes, until the scallops begin to lightly brown, then add 1/3 cup of white wine and saute further until only a couple of tablespoons of liquid remain. Sprinkle a little salt onto the scallops.

 

In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat, then add the finely chopped onion. Stir constantly as you saute the onion for about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the rice and mix everything together well in the buttery mixture for about 90 seconds. Now add the dry white wine and stir pretty much constantly (you don't need to stir vigorously) until the wine is down to a few tablespoons and then add 1 cup clam/seafood broth and 1 cup vegetable broth. Again stir until the liquid is reduced by more than half, then add 1/2 cup clam/seafood broth and 1/2 cup vegetable stock. Follow the same pattern of stirring, and, if using asparagus tips, after the liquid heats up, add the asparagus while you continue to stir. Add the scallop mixture from the skillet and keep stirring until the asparagus is tender, but still firm (not mushy).

 

Top two photos are with scallops and asparagus tips and the third and fourth photos are just with bay scallops ...

WORD HISTORY: 

Fierce-This word is related to "feral" and to "ferocity," both Latin-derived words borrowed by English via French, and to "ferocious," a Latin word borrowed directly from Latin. It goes back to Indo European "gwher," which meant, "wild animal, wild beast." This gave Latin the adjective "ferus," meaning "wild, untamed, savage," from a "likely" Italic form of "feros" (wild, savage).^ Latin-based Old French took the word as "fers" (masculine singular form), meaning, "wild, mighty, harsh, savage;" thus, "fierce, ferocious," which became "fiers" in the French dialect in England. English borrowed the word in the mid 1200s as "fiers," essentially with the same meanings, although the meaning "brave, bold" arose for awhile (perhaps seen as the result of being fierce and ferocious?), but died out after a couple of hundred years (by the mid 1500s?).   

 

^  Italic is a branch of the Indo European family of languages and includes Latin, Umbrian, Venetic, and others, most of which have died out. Latin's own limited use today is mainly because its dialects evolved into several modern languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Catalan, Sardinian, and several others.