This roasted red pepper sauce is heavenly. I do not throw that word around lightly. I first created this recipe on Christmas Eve last year, and tasting it was the first time I saw God. Angels sang. Sunbeams rained down. I was temporarily blinded. I’m not even exaggerating. I was transformed. It was spiritual.

Your ingredients, m’dude (yes, that’s gender neutral):

• 1 jar roasted red peppers
• 4-5 strips bacon
• fresh basil (dried works too, but yawn)
• 1 shallot
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Here’s how ya make the sauceeee:

1. Chop your bacon and fry it up in a pan. Set aside on a paper towel or plate or something.
2. Dice your shallots and mince your garlic. Cook the shallots in the bacon grease, and toss the garlic in for the last minutes or so.
3. Get out your food processor and throw in the following: roasted red peppers, bacon, shallots and garlic (including some of the bacon grease… or all of it. All of it is good), and a small handful of basil leaves.
4. Purée it real good.

Now that you got the sauce, let’s make the risotto. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — risotto is not hard or complicated or time consuming. It’s not. Swear to the God I finally saw.

Risotto requires:

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1 small shallot
• 1/4 cup white rice

1. Get that veggie stock simmering in a small pot.
2. Grab a second pot and cook ya shallots until they’re nice and sweaty.
3. Once your shallots look like they’ve taken a weekend at the beach (read: have a teeny bit of color), add a cup of arborio rice and toast it until it turns semi transparent.
4. Once ya rice is toasty, add 1/4 cup white wine. I used a shitty pinot grigio that I’ll never drink. Stir the rice until the wine is absorbed.
5. Next, slowly start adding your veggie stock, about a 1/2 cup at a time, frequently stirring.

Risotto is that easy and no I’m not kidding.

Now prep and cook your jumbo scallops. Pat your scallops dry so you can get a good sear and then season with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat a pan with some olive oil, and place ya scallops in the pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan. You don’t want your scallops touching. Keep it like a middle school dance in that pan. Sear your scallops until both sides have turned a nice caramel brown. They usually take about 3-5 minutes a side.

Now you gotta plate! I topped my dish with some fresh basil leaves and additional bacon bits.