Date night dinner

I saw a recipe in the newspaper last week for “The Ultimate Date Night Dinner” – seared scallops with artichoke risotto. It sounded delicious and coincidentally, Samantha was out this evening. I tweaked the recipe a little – it bugs me when a recipe calls for a small amount of something you don’t typically keep on hand that is going to leave you with a lot of that ingredient leftover. The recipe as printed called for 1 tsp of fennel fronds, half of the fennel bulb and a tablespoon of mascarpone cheese. Mascarpone cheese doesn’t keep long and I don’t use it in many recipes. I substituted cream cheese for the mascarpone, left out the fennel and increased the shallot. It was delicious! (I was surprised by how much flavor it had using salted water instead of stock for the liquid.)

Prep all ingredients before you start cooking – once you start stirring the risotto, you have to keep stirring!

Artichoke risotto with seared scallops

• 1 TB butter
• 1/2 cup Arborio rice
• 1 medium shallot, chopped
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 can artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 TB grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 TB cream cheese or Mascarpone cheese
• Wondra flour
• 3 – 4 scallops per person
• olive oil

In a saucepan, bring 6 cups of water and 1 TB kosher salt to a boil. Move to a burner over low heat to keep warm.

In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add rice and stir for about 2 minutes to toast. Add shallot and cook another minute, until shallot is translucent. Add wine and stir until it is absorbed. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the warm salted water at a time. Continue stirring with each addition until it is absorbed. Continue with water for about 20 – 25 minutes until rice is almost tender and plumping.

Add artichoke hearts with an additional 1/2 cup of the water. Keep sitrring until rice is creamy in consistency. Stir in lemon zest, Parmesan and mascarpone or cream cheese. Keep warm while you cook scallops.

Rinse and thoroughly dry scallops. Dust with Wondra flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 tsps of olive oil and sear scallops about 2 minutes a side. Serve on top of risotto.