Capesante scottate alla Caprese

Sea scallops in the style of Capri

I have never been to Capri; although, often dreamt of it. After a few years of budgeting and setting money aside for a family vacation, we decided it was time. So, we booked a three-week sabbatical in Italy for next May. Capri was the final destination on this trip. “Abbiamo bisogno di due biglietti per il traghetto per Capri, per favore.” Even memorized the phrase needed to purchase tickets for the ferry.

The moment that final Airbnb in Sorrento was reserved, along comes my wife with an anxious look on her face and a positive pregnancy test in her hand. Looks like we’re going to need to postpone that trip a little longer.

Let’s close our eyes just for a moment and picture ourselves on the terrace of that mountainside trattoria: The sounds of the surf crashing onto the beach and smell of sea spray fill the air as we lazily enjoy cracked seafood cocktails alongside refreshing aperitifs and stare out across an infinite blanket of deep blue glistening with millions of diamonds.

Wow…sounds like somebody’s been into the wine. Anyway, back to reality. What does this have to do with scallops? Well, not a whole lot—except that if we were soaking up the Mediterranean sun and sipping Limoncello on this perfect sun-kissed afternoon at the aforementioned Caprese patio café, then this is an ideal way to present the world’s most succulent bivalve mollusk. “Un altro bicchiere di rosato, per favore.”

Dry > Wet

In the seafood business, there are two ways scallops are prepared for the market: wet and dry. Wet scallops are soaked in a bath of phosphates. They absorb the liquid and swell, therefore increasing their weight and lowering the net cost to the processor. If you buy wet scallops, you are paying for the additional water weight. The absorbed liquid, by the way, evaporates when they are cooked—rendering a smaller, tougher, and less flavorful final product.

Dry is the seafood industry term for natural scallops. Natural scallops have a slightly tan or vanilla color. They are superior because they caramelize beautifully, as they are not giving up all of that added moisture. Additionally, their flavor is sweeter and more pronounced; whereas processed (wet) scallops have a muted, washed-out flavor that tends to be slightly soapy or even bitter. High-end restaurants exclusively buy dry-packed scallops.

For these reasons, only buy them dry-packed from a local fishmonger or restaurant supplier. When treating yourself to something as delicate as this, it is worth it to spend a few extra dollars. Purchased from a reputable supplier, dry-packed are often the same price per pound (or in the neighborhood) as the far inferior product found at the local grocery.

U-what?

The U designation stands for “under”. U8, therefore, indicates under 8, meaning it takes eight or fewer scallops to equal a pound. Shrimp and prawns are measured using the same designation, where anything U12 and under is considered colossal. My local market, Sammy’s Seafood, regularly stocks a wide variety of the highest quality fresh seafood. Their inventory includes U8s and U10s for the same price per pound as supermarkets charge for the processed U15s-U20s. That’s before calculating what you lose to water weight. Do the math: If your local seafood purveyor requires a minimum buy, then include a few friends and everybody wins.