Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Shrimp Linguine

Back to blogging after a bit of an inadvertent cooking break at our house - we had to put our beloved family dog down a few weeks ago & I'll tell you, it hasn't been the same in our kitchen without her!  She used to sit at my feet, just waiting for something to fall for her to gobble up.  I miss her & my floor misses her, too!  I didn't realize how much she helped keep my floor clean until now!  So, it took me awhile to get back to cooking, and took me a few tries to get back to cooking stuff that tastes good, but I believe we're back on the up and up, now that it's been a few weeks & I have a few good meals under my belt.  I decided to cook a few different things since I hadn't cooked in awhile - this is one of our favorites, though we don't eat it often - bc it's so easy, yet looks impressive.
For this recipe, you'll need:
  • your choice linguine noodles
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 lemons
  • butter
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 lb of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined


I'll be honest, this is not my favorite part.  I'd rather pull the giblets out of a chicken, than peel & devein shrimp with their little eyeballs looking at me.  But, in order to eat, we must peel.  So I did.

Make sure you devein the shrimp on both sides by simply slicing down the backside of the shrimp & rinsing out the vein.  It's pretty easy, just kind of labor intensive.

Smash & cut up garlic.  Smells so good!!

Boil linguine according to package directions.  Drain, but reserve about 1 cup of noodle water. Add a few tbs of butter in the noodles to prevent sticking & act as a base for your sauce.  Put aside.

Put a few tbs of olive oil in your warm skillet.  I have an electric range so it's tricky with the temperature.  Make sure it's not too hot or it will cook your shrimp too quickly and make it tough.

I added salt and pepper to my shrimp before adding it to pan.  Cook until shrimp turns pink - about 3-5 minutes.  Add the juice of 1 lemon (be careful for seeds) with the shrimp.

Once the shrimp is cooked, remove from pan.  Add more olive oil, 2 tbs butter, and garlic to the pan. Saute the garlic until cooked through.  Add the remaining juice of the other lemons (this doesn't make the sauce lemony, it just takes the fishy smell out of the shrimp).  Add remaining noodle water (I used about 1/2 cup, but you may use whatever suits you)

When your sauce looks like this, add the shrimp quickly, mix, then pour over linguine.
We ended up with two versions of this dish at our house:

Shrimp linguine, brussel sprouts with butter, red potatoes for the mister.

Shrimp linguine with mushrooms sauteed in garlic and butter, red potatoes, & french bread for me.  Carbs, anyone???

The mister doesn't like mushrooms, I don't like brussel sprouts, makes for more mushrooms for me & more brussel sprouts for him!  Perfect! 

Looks fancy, but super easy, what could be better?

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