Instructions: Fry the bacon or pancetta in a small amount of olive oil in a hot pan.

When its nearly ready add the sage. The bacon and sage will cook and crisp up at about the same time.

Once they are cooked take them out of the pan and put them on to kitchen paper to drain.

Put the pan back on the heat and when it is very hot add a little drizzle of oil and fry the seasoned scallops.

These wilt take about a minute each side; the skin will go slightly crisp and golden brown.

When youve cooked both sides of your scallops squeeze the lemon juice over the top and give them a stir this will start to caramelize the outside skin even more.

Take the scallops out of the pan and put them into a dish.

Using the same pan reheat the lentils. Dress the salad leaves with the olive oil and lemon dressing and divide between 4 plates.

Sprinkle the crispy bacon and the crispy sage leaves over the 4 salad plates and then put the scallops round the salad.

When your lentils are hot just sprinkle on top.

This should be eaten straight away.

Every now and again at the River Cafe we make this dish and I think its the best scallop dish in the whole world Ive never ever tasted anything better. Heres my version. The combination is superb its not heavy and its full of different flavours. I think pan fried or pan seared is the only way to eat scallops because the skin goes really caramelly and sweet. You must try this even though scallops are quite expensive everything else in the recipe is really cheap and you only need 2 or 3 scallops per person. It is a really interesting and quick thing to make.

Serves 4

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.