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Scallops wrapped in pancetta with green olive and red pepper salsa
( SERVES 4 )

Bite

3.0 / 5 FROM 2

Pancetta-wrapped scallops on a zesty tomato, olive and avocado salsa sound appealing enough but the Apartment Bar has gone one step further, replacing the bread once used to cover glasses in tapas bars with a plate made of scallop shells.

This recipe is one of the 12 finalists of Bite's Estrella Damm Tapas Competition in 2014. Click here to see all of the finalists.

The Apartment Bar, 25 Allen Street, Wellington

Flat bread

100 g	Plain flour
½ tsp	Baking powder
2 g	Flaky sea salt
100 g	Plain unsweetened yoghurt

Scallops

16	Scallops, cleaned and roes removed
8 slices	Pancetta, 20cm in length
25 g	Butter, melted
5 g	Flaky sea salt

Green olive and red pepper salsa

30 g	Pitted green olives
60 g	Roasted red peppers
½	Avocado
½	Red onion
½	Tomato, quartered and seeded
1	Lemon, freshly zested
2 Tbsp	Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp	Flat leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp	Lemon juice
3 g	Flaky sea salt

Directions

First make the flat bread. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and combine with the yoghurt. Work into a smooth dough. Rest the dough for 30 minutes before rolling.
Meanwhile remove the roe from the scallops. Ensure there is no connective tissue still attached to the scallop meat.
Cut the pancetta in half to make 10cm-long strips, then carefully but firmly wrap each around a scallop leaving the top and bottom exposed. Brush the tops and bottoms of the scallops with the melted butter and then season with the sea salt. Let the wrapped scallops come to room temperature for 15 minutes.
While the scallops are warming, dice all the salsa ingredients. They should be diced slightly smaller than 1cm, the onion even finer. Add the diced ingredients to a bowl but do not stir to avoid breaking them up. Zest the lemon over the bowl to catch the citrus oils then add the olive oil, parsley and lemon juice to the bowl with the salt. Mix through gently, cover with plastic film and keep to one side to infuse at room temperature.
Heat 2 pans to a medium heat. Roll the dough made earlier into rounds, roughly ½ cm thick and the same size as your pan. Fry the bread in one of the pans until lightly charred on one side then flip and cook the other side. Remove from the pan and cut into 8-10 slices as you would a pizza.
In the other pan, add a little butter and when hot add the scallops and cook on each side for 2 minutes before removing and allowing to rest.
While the dough and the scallops are resting, use a small ring and divide the salsa between 4 plates or scallop shells if you have them, place the scallops on top of the salsa and then place the bread leaning against the salsa and scallops.