Spicy Scallops with Capellini

Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.

Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.

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Ingredients:

1 pound sea scallops, quartered if large
6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 small dried chipotle chile with seeds, stemmed and chopped
fine sea salt, to taste
1/2 pound capellini

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400F. In a large shallow glass or ceramic baking dish, toss the scallops with the oil, wine, parsley, garlic and chipotle chile. Season the ingredients with salt and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the oil is sizzling and the scallops are firm.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the capellini until just al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain the pasta and transfer into a serving bowl. Add the scallops and their juices. Toss the scallops and pasta well and serve immediately.

Recipe by Ruth Van Waerebeek-Gonzalez, from the October 2001 issue of Food and Wine Magazine.