A Kitchen Primer

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on us last night, it was time to scrounge through the freezer & cupboards to find ingredients for dinner.  As it turned out, we had a pound of frozen jumbo shrimp (Trader Joe’s), and (surprise!) some pasta.  So I made pasta and shrimp with garlic, hot pepper, and saffron.  I suppose you could call this my version of shrimp scampi (I know, that translates as “shrimp shrimp,” but everybody knows it actually means “shrimp with tons of garlic”).  I’ve recorded it as I made it last night.

To serve two (generously):

• 1/2 lb uncooked shrimp, peeled (and thawed!)
• 1/2 lb pasta: I used maccheroni alla chiatarra, but thin spaghetti or linguini would work as well
• 3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1  dried hot pepper
• 1 red pepper, seeded and julienned (cut into matchstick-sized pieces)
• 12 grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• pinch of saffron
• splash of white wine
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• olive oil

If the shrimp is frozen, remove it from its package and put it in a large bowl of cold water to thaw.  Once it is thawed, peel it if necessary.

Put a big pot of water on for the pasta.

Prepare the vegetables: peel and slice the garlic, seed and chop the pepper, cut up the tomatoes.

Once the water is boiling, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan.

When the oil is hot:

• Put the pasta in its water & note the time (it will take 8 to 10 minutes to cook, depending on the actual type of pasta you use)
• Put the hot pepper and garlic in the oil & stir.
• As soon as the garlic begins to turn color, add the shrimp and red pepper.  Lower heat to keep the garlic from burning.
• After 2 or 3 minutes, turn the shrimp over.
• After another 2 or 3 minutes, add the white wine & allow to boil off for a minute, then lower heat
• Add the tomatoes, saffron, and lemon juice & heat gently while the pasta finishes cooking
• Taste and add salt if desired.
• When the pasta is done, drain it, add the sauce, and serve.

Comments and possible variations:

• My shrimp were really big, so I cut them up into 3 chucks each.  Leaving them whole makes for a more impressive presentation, but means you won’t get bits of shrimp as you eat your pasta.
• If you have smaller shrimp, it will cook faster, so plan accordingly.  You don’t want to overcook the shrimp.
• The tomatoes were cute but the skins were annoying.  Next time, I think I’ll blanch,  peel, and chop 2 or 3 plum tomatoes if I have them.
• It could have used another hot pepper.

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