Last Night's Dinner: Shrimp Scampi Pasta

     Mmmmm, yes I will be telling you about my Shrimp Scampi Pasta, my friends. Last night's dinner is one of the hubbies favorite meals. He was skeptical when I first made this around a year ago (his past pasta experiences differed little from regular sgetti n meatballs). But, after his first bite he was hooked. I originally got the idea from my Food Network Magazine. This is Lidia Bastianich's recipe with a tantilizing photo:

Find recipe here

     You know me, I changed it up...a lot. I told you I just got the idea from here! So, this is my version:

  
     I know, it's not as pretty as Lidia's but it's still darn tasty. I will normally get frozen shrimps on my trip to the store, these are small but for a dish like this it works perfectly, You can get a shrimp and a nice mouthful of pasta all in one bite. So, I thaw my shrimps (yes, I like to say shrimps. Yes, I know the correct term is shrimp. I like to say SHRIMPS!) then drain and pat them dry. I get my pan very hot and add enough olive oil just to coat the bottom of my pan. Salt and pepper the shrimps just before adding them to the skillet. Go ahead and add them all to the skillet so they can get a good sear but only cook about half the way through and scoop them out on to a plate and set aside. Next, you will need these ingredients:

• 2 Cups     dry white wine
• 1 Cup      chicken stock
• 7 cloves   garlic minced
• 4 Tbls      butter
• 1 ea         bay leaf
• 2 Tbls      parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

     Make sure you have all your ingredients ready to go near you (your mise en place if you will). At this step your going to work fast. Drain any excess oil from your pan, add 2 Tbls of the butter and add the garlic to the pan at a medium heat. Stir around until you can just smell the garlic's aroma in the air.

My garlic looks so fine because I used my zester!

     Next, add the wine:

I use the cheapest wine I can find for my cooking scored this at Wally World $2.97, hollers

     And your chicken broth:

Also from the Mart

     And lastly add your bay leaf. Let simmer until reduced by half, at this point you should be dropping your pasta into boiling water. The brand of pasta we get takes 4 minutes for angel hair pasta to cook, use any type of pasta you'd like for this recipe and cook to the directions on the box. I cook until it is slightly under al dente, just one minute shy of the boxes instructions. When the pasta is done and the sauce is reduced by half, take out the bay leaf and discard then, I take the pasta out of the water with tongs and place DIRECTLY into the pan with the sauce like so:

     At this point you will want to use your tongs to move the pasta around in the sauce, let it continue to simmer. Add the cheese, the remaining butter and continue tossing, you want this to cook together until almost all of the liquid is soaked up by the noodles, this only takes about a minute or so. Do not let all of the sauce get evaporated or the dish will end up being too dry. It is now ready to serve, you can add more cheese or fresh herbs of any kind that you'd like on top. I just served with garlic bread. You will have garlic breath after eating this I must warn you but, if you both eat it it's like it cancels each other out, right? Right. XOXO

--Dana

     P.S. It's also great for leftovers the next day!

Yummy lunch!