Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Scallops: An Exquisite Feast with Friends on the California Coast

There’s nothing quite like the allure of exceptional food to bring people together. With the enticing promise of a truly magnificent feast, we eagerly accepted an invitation to spend a delightful weekend with dear friends at their stunning home, perched majestically above the breathtaking California coastline. It’s a testament to the power of delicious cuisine and warm companionship – after all, isn’t that what friends are for? The undisputed highlight of our culinary adventure? Perfectly grilled, bacon-wrapped scallops. These succulent bites are remarkably easy to prepare and grill, yet deliver an unforgettable explosion of flavor, making them a perfect centerpiece for any gourmet gathering.

Our long-standing friendship with Dave and Amy has blessed us with countless cherished memories, including many privileged stays at their magnificent residence in Ventura, California. Each visit invariably concludes with playful threats of simply moving in and never leaving. Their custom-built home is a true masterpiece, boasting uninterrupted, panoramic views of the serene blue Pacific coastline. Beyond the stunning vistas, it features a sophisticated subterranean wine cellar, perfect for storing a curated collection, and, of course, a spectacular gourmet kitchen. This culinary haven is fully equipped with top-of-the-line appliances, including an impressive Sub-Zero fridge and a magnificent Wolf range, designed to inspire and facilitate incredible cooking experiences. It’s an ideal setting for preparing any type of feast, from intimate dinners to grand celebrations.

The Joy of Cooking Together: Crafting a Memorable Gourmet Dinner

While cooking solo offers its own unique pleasure, the joy of preparing a meal *with* friends and *for* friends truly elevates the experience. It’s a delightful synergy, where laughter, shared stories, and collaborative effort multiply the fun exponentially. Our vision for the weekend was simple yet perfect: a vibrant trip to the local farmers market to source the freshest, seasonal ingredients, followed by a collaborative cooking session. The grand finale would involve savoring our homemade creations, pairing them with fine wine, and soaking in the refreshing ocean air and spectacular views from their home’s third-floor deck. This sounded like the quintessential Californian weekend getaway, promising both culinary delight and cherished moments.

Word of our culinary plans quickly spread among family and other close friends. What began as an intimate dinner for four swiftly and joyfully transformed into a lively party for nine! And truly, the more the merrier. This spontaneous expansion only added to the excitement, turning our quiet retreat into a vibrant gathering filled with even more laughter and good cheer. It underscored the natural appeal of delicious food and the warmth of shared experiences, especially when set against such a beautiful backdrop.

Thoughtful Menu Planning: Building a Feast Around Grilled Scallops

When orchestrating a dinner party, my approach to menu planning always begins with the star attraction: the main course. From there, I meticulously build the accompanying dishes, ensuring a harmonious balance of flavors, textures, and seasonal freshness. For this particular gourmet dinner, the choice was clear: succulent grilled bacon-wrapped scallops. Our hostess, Amy, has a particular fondness for scallops, making them the perfect, personalized highlight for the evening. We were fortunate enough to find exceptionally beautiful, jumbo-sized sea scallops at the local farmers market, ensuring the highest quality for our centerpiece dish.

Instead of the more conventional bacon, this time we opted for delicate strips of Prosciutto to wrap our scallops. Both choices offer a delightful salty crispness that perfectly complements the sweet tenderness of the scallops, but Prosciutto provides a slightly more refined and less greasy finish. After carefully wrapping each scallop, we threaded them onto skewers, drizzled them lightly with high-quality olive oil, and seasoned them before placing them on the hot grill. The aroma that filled the air as these savory bundles cooked was absolutely intoxicating, promising a truly memorable dish for our gathering.

Mastering the Art of Bacon-Wrapped Scallops

Crafting these delectable bacon-wrapped (or Prosciutto-wrapped) scallops is simpler than you might imagine, yet the results are consistently impressive. Begin by preparing your bacon or Prosciutto: slice the strips in half lengthwise. If your scallops are on the smaller side, you might even cut them into thirds to ensure a proportionate wrap. Next, carefully encase each individual scallop with a slice of the cured meat, making sure the ends overlap slightly to keep it secure. Once wrapped, thread about three scallops onto each skewer. For optimal stability and ease of turning on the grill, double-pronged bamboo skewers are highly recommended. If using bamboo skewers, remember to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes prior to grilling to prevent them from burning. Before grilling, a light drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper will enhance their natural flavors and help achieve that perfect sear.

Dressed for Success: The Perfect Mango-Citrus Sauce

To elevate our grilled scallops from simply delicious to truly extraordinary, we crafted a light, vibrant, and creamy mango-citrus sauce. This particular sauce is a personal favorite, a versatile creation I’ve used before with great success, including for a recent lobster salad. Its bright and refreshing profile makes it an ideal accompaniment for delicate seafood.

The preparation is straightforward: combine the fresh juices of various citrus fruits, finely chopped shallots, diced ripe mango, a good quality oil, and a touch of honey for balance. Then, simply blend all the ingredients together in a high-speed blender until perfectly smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust the seasoning with a pinch of sea salt and a dash of white pepper to enhance its complex flavors. I vividly remember the anticipation as I waited for Amy to try it – her delighted reaction was priceless! It’s a sauce you absolutely must try; it adds a burst of sunshine to any dish it graces.

Completing the Gourmet Ensemble: A Full Menu for the Feast

With our star main course, the grilled scallops, perfectly planned, we turned our attention to rounding out the menu with equally impressive and complementary dishes, all inspired by the bounties of the farmers market. Nice, plump artichokes immediately caught our eye; they are a crowd-pleaser and add an elegant touch to any meal. Their earthy flavor and satisfying texture make them a versatile vegetable.

To prepare them, we first trimmed the artichokes and steamed them in a large pot until tender. Once cooked, we allowed them to cool slightly before splitting them in half from top to bottom. This step allows for easy removal of the fuzzy choke. A light drizzle of olive oil transformed them into perfect grilling candidates, imparting a beautiful char and enhancing their natural sweetness. As a bonus, the grill was already hot from the scallops, making this an efficient addition.

No outdoor grill available? No problem at all! You can still enjoy the deliciousness of these wrapped scallops. Simply prepare the scallops as directed, then sear them to perfection in a hot cast-iron skillet or a non-stick pan on your stovetop. The goal is a beautiful golden-brown crust and a tender, opaque interior, regardless of your cooking method. The key is high heat and not overcrowding the pan to ensure a proper sear.

With summer tomatoes at their absolute peak, bursting with sun-ripened flavor, we knew we had to incorporate them into our menu. A refreshing heirloom tomato gazpachowas the perfect choice. This chilled, vibrant soup is like drinking a garden, delivering an explosion of fresh, wholesome flavors in every spoonful. It’s incredibly versatile, and you can easily make a large batch to enjoy over several days, savoring the taste of summer throughout the week. The beauty of gazpacho lies in its simplicity and the quality of its ingredients.

For optimal freshness and to minimize food waste, leftover vegetables for future batches of gazpacho can be stored efficiently in a Sub-Zero fridge, known for its superior preservation capabilities, keeping your produce crisp and ready for your next culinary creation.

A Chef’s Tip on Gazpacho: Many people are initially hesitant about chilled soups, sometimes even claiming they don’t like them without ever having tried them. This is where presentation and a little persuasion come in! Prepare your delicious gazpacho and serve it in elegant small cups, charming bowls, or even sophisticated martini glasses. Watch as perceptions change with the first refreshing sip. Gazpacho is not only incredibly flavorful, cool, and invigorating, but it’s also packed with nutrients and incredibly good for you. It’s a delightful surprise for any palate.

To further enhance our diverse spread, we prepared a hearty and flavorful Mediterranean quinoa salad. This vibrant dish was packed with fresh mint and dill, tangy feta cheese, briny olives, and an assortment of crisp vegetables, offering a delightful textual contrast and a burst of herbaceous flavor. Completing our savory selections was a simple yet essential tossed green salad, providing that crisp, refreshing green element to balance the richer dishes on the table. Each component of the menu was carefully selected to complement the grilled scallops and create a balanced, unforgettable dining experience.

Save Room for Dessert: The Unforgettable Lemon Almond Polenta Cake

No grand feast is truly complete without a show-stopping dessert. It’s the final course, the sweet memory that lingers long after the meal is over. To conclude our culinary extravaganza, we prepared my absolute favorite go-to dessert: a lemon almond polenta cake. This cake is consistently a massive hit, and true to form, not a single crumb was left behind by the end of the evening. Its popularity is no surprise, given its delightful flavor and impressive versatility.

This dessert is a dream for both bakers and diners alike. It’s a one-pan wonder, with an incredibly easy batter that comes together quickly in a food processor. What makes it even more appealing is that it’s naturally gluten-free, reduced in sugar, and dairy-free, catering to a variety of dietary preferences without sacrificing taste or texture. Baked in a springform pan, it truly is the proverbial “piece of cake” to prepare, on multiple levels. The batter itself is so irresistibly delicious that you’ll be tempted to eat it straight from the bowl, a temptation that Dave, our host, willingly succumbed to, proving its undeniable appeal before it even made it to the oven.

The secret to its perfect bake lies partly in the exceptional capabilities of a high-quality oven. Wolf’s dual convection oven, with its two powerful fans and four heating elements, delivers a remarkably uniform heating experience that single convection fans simply cannot match. This advanced technology ensures consistent air circulation throughout the entire oven cavity, eliminating any hot or cool spots. The result is unparalleled consistency in your baked goods, meaning you’ll never have to rotate your pan mid-bake. Our lemon almond polenta cake emerged from the Wolf oven flawlessly baked, with a perfect golden crust and a tender, moist interior, just as intended.

To serve this delightful cake, we added a luxurious topping of whipped coconut cream – a fantastic dairy-free alternative to traditional whipped cream. For an extra touch of sweetness, a little honey or agave syrup can be incorporated into the coconut cream. The key to achieving that perfect fluffy consistency is to ensure your coconut cream is super cold before whipping. We utilized an Isi Whipper, which is not only a fun gadget to have in the kitchen but also makes quick work of creating beautifully aerated creams. Finally, we garnished the cake with an abundance of fresh, vibrant berries, adding a pop of color and a burst of juicy sweetness that perfectly complemented the cake’s zesty almond notes.

The Grand Finale: A Culinary Celebration with Loved Ones

After a flurry of last-minute preparations, ensuring every dish was perfectly presented and ready for the table, the moment finally arrived. It was incredibly satisfying to witness the culmination of our efforts and to share the fruits of our labor. We gathered around the beautifully set table, raising our glasses to toast a truly wonderful weekend spent in excellent company. The fantastic dinner, featuring our delicious grilled bacon-wrapped scallops and all the thoughtfully prepared accompaniments, was the perfect way to celebrate friendship, good food, and the joy of coming together. It was a feast for both the palate and the soul, creating memories that will undoubtedly last a lifetime.

More Delicious Scallop Recipes to Explore

If you’ve fallen in love with scallops after reading about our gourmet feast, there are many more ways to enjoy this tender, sweet seafood. For another delightful meal, consider trying these seared scallops with fresh vegetables and pasta, a complete and satisfying dish. Alternatively, for a burst of Asian-inspired flavor, explore our recipe for seared scallops with a zesty orange miso sauce. Each recipe offers a unique culinary journey, showcasing the incredible versatility of scallops.

📖 Recipe