The results were not spectacular this time (by the way, I would say that these were close to nonpareil), but while the scallops were certainly not big, I blame their shortcomings on the way I cooked them (the height of the flame, the amount of the oil, too long?). Still, it would be very hard to ruin a dish described as scallops stuffed with Italian basil and garlic.

And the basil, ‘Genovese‘ this time, was superb.

The ‘greens’ were pretty wonderful as well (I don’t remember rainbow chard ever being as sweet as I’ve found it to be this season – or its colors so brilliant).

• 17 medium sea scallops (13 ounces) from Blue Moon Fish Company, rinsed, dried, slit horizontally with a very sharp knife almost all of the way, stuffed with a mixture of Genovese basil from windfall Farms, one medium-size clove of garlic from Stokes Farm, sea salt, and black pepper, all chopped together very finely, the stuffing ingredients removed to a small bowl where just enough olive oil was added to form a paste, the stuffed scallops then rolled around on a plate with a little more olive oil, drained, pan grilled little more than a minute on each side, removed to 2 plates, an organic lemon from Whole Foods squeezed over the top, garnished with chopped garlic flowers from Windfall Farms
• rainbow chard from Alewife Farm, wilted in a little olive oil in which 2 halved garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm had first been heated, finished with a squeeze of juice of an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a little olive oil
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette) white, Carabella Vineyard Pinot Gris Estate Chehalem Mountains 2014, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was the magnificent album, ‘James Tenney: Spectrum Pieces‘