Orecchiette with Scallops, Favas & Spring Peas

the ongoing quest to use up as much of our CSA share as possible is doing fairly well, given who you're looking at here... there's been tons of salads, an experiment with my least-favorite thing - chard - that i actually liked, mint-gingerade, etc etc. Not everything is a winner, nor are the recipes all mind-blowing but some are and also? i'm going to assume that its no coincidence that i've lost a few lbs since CSA began this year...

Its been HOTTER than hell in NYC this week, so when i polled my twitter friends to see what i should eat for dinner on tuesday, my friend roopa mentioned that she was making orecchiette, favas & peas from her own CSA share.

do you know how excellent it is to have a friend who is a good cook AND is one day ahead of you on CSA pickup?

I highly recommend it.

Anyway, wednesday comes around and i'm still thinking of Roopa's idea and then i see that Mark Bittman's personal site has a guest post from someone also using pasta, favas & peas...

If both of my go-to sources are pimping out similar recipes, it must be the thing to make, right?

So i called up the meat-eater and asked him to take a quick inventory of our cabinets/fridge/freezer. turned out that we could make up our own version of this with minimal purchases... I'm not always so brave when it comes to that but, as the meat eater always reminds me, worst case scenario? we just order in.

In all the times he's said that, we havent had to do it yet...

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Orecchiette with Scallops, Favas & Spring Peas
courtesy of me (inspired by Raspberry Eggplant & Mark Bittman)

Note: Many, many modifications could me made to this recipe based on what you have at home (see the inspiration links above) and i think you'd still end up with something excellent! Not the least of those being that you could eliminate the scallops and be totally vegetarian friendly... Not to mention that, if you were cooking for a veg & a non-veg, it would be super-simple to prepare it half & half...

2 c dry orecchiette

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil

1lb bay scallops

1.5 tbsp mint pesto
1.5 tbsp garlic scape pesto

1lb shelled favas (shelling tutorial)
1/2lb shelled peas (shelling tutorial)

salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese
***

Shell the favas & peas & set aside.

Prepare orecchiette according to directions on the box, leaving just slightly al dente. Reserve 1/4 c of the pasta water

Heat a olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat
Add the scallops & add pepper to taste.
Cook scallops until just about 3/4 done (cooked scallops are completely opaque, so make sure you dont let them get that far yet).
Carefully drain the liquid out of the pan so that the pan is mostly dry. (you will need to do this as the scallops will have released water and you will have more liquid in the pan than will allow for any browning)
Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the butter, and saute the scallops until you just see a tiny bit of browning on the edges. be careful to not over-cook.

Remove scallops from pan and set aside.

Lower heat to just shy of medium and add the peas & favas. Add a bit of olive oil if you dont think the pan has enough liquid left over from the scallops to prevent the favas & peas from sticking.
saute for ~2 - 3 minutes.
Lower heat to medium and put orecchiette, scallops & both kinds of pesto in the pan & toss until combined.
Add a bit of the reserved pasta water if your pesto is on the thick side (optional)

Plate & top with parmesan & more pepper, if desired.