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Sauteed Shrimp and Asparagus with Lemon over Rotini

Posted on | November 11, 2008 | No Comments

One of my favorite pastimes is staring into the fridge, freezer and pantry to see what random ingredients I can throw together to create something delicious. Typically, my leftovers are from meals that I’ve made following a recipe, and the bits and pieces of those don’t always add up on paper. However, cooking is science and the lab can usually pull together something pretty good if the basic science is sound.

Tonight, I found the following: frozen shrimp (Trader Joe’s pre-cooked frozen shrimp), frozen asparagus spears, linguine, a lemon, pre cut, but fresh, flat leaf parsley, two garlic cloves, unsalted butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

What I ended up pulling together was one of the best dishes I’ve made in some time. Most of the fun is eating it, of course, but it’s rewarding to create something new out of nothing, a creation all your own that deserves in your own private recipe book.

So, here’s my memory of how it all came together:

• Boil water for the pasta and add a tablespoon of salt to the water. FULL DISCLOSURE: I rarely measure but this is safe bet for salting cooking water for pasta.

• Thaw the shrimp (I picked out about 12-15) in a colander under cold running water for 5 minutes or so. cut the tails off and set aside.

• Thaw the asparagus spears under the cold running water

SIDE NOTE: resist the urge to use the microwave to thaw either of the above ingredients. There are a million reasons why.

• ..back to the asparagus. Dry the spears and cut into two-inch sections.

• Take a zester or, what I prefer, a peeler and pull three to four long peels off the lemon. Dice the peels of lemon.

• Crush the two cloves of garlic and dice

• Add a quarter inch pat of butter to the pan (I eyeball this)

• One tablespoon of olive oil

• Set the heat on low-med

• when the butter starts to bubble, add the garlic.

• Cook on low-med for about a minute and then add the shrimp for two minutes (it’s cooked, so all you really want to do is heat it)

• Add the asparagus, the lemon peel, salt, black pepper and parsley (a generous four finger pinch)

• Toss the mixture a few times and let it sit.

• The water in the shrimp and the asparagus will continue to render out into the pan. That’s a good thing.

• The water should be boiling now, so add your pasta and cover with a lid. You’re really only going to want to cook the pasta for 4-5 minutes until PRE al-dente. You’ll add to the mixture in the saute pan later so it will continue to cook a little.

• You’ll notice that there is more liquid in the pan now that you’ve let it sit for a few minutes. Turn up the heat to medium-medium high and continue to toss.

• JUST prior to pulling the pasta off the heat and draining, add a generous amount of the Parmesan cheese to the mixture. Don’t mix it in, just let it sit on top of the mixture.

• Drain the pasta and immediately add it in phases to the mixture, tossing or mixing after each bit. You don’t want the starch to overwhelm the flavor so don’t add so much pasta that the shrimp look lost. They like each other, so keep them close together.

• Now, at this point I added about a teaspoon of white truffle oil I had laying around. It’ sa nice finishing touch just before the last toss of the pasta.

• The cheese will be all “melty” now. turn off the heat, transfer to a bowl, finish off with another dusting of the cheese and perhaps some finishing sea salt and enjoy.

I thought it was an amazing summer dish that’s a snap to pull together last minute. I imagine it would be even better with completely fresh ingredients, but after making this, these are probably things i’ll keep on hand in the freeze for those nights i forget to shop for fresh food.

One point of note on the lemon. I find that the rind, rather than the juice, is incredibly more effective in imparting that fresh lemon flavor. It obviously lacks the acid and doesn’t add to the liquid. I’ve become a big fan of this method.

Okay, well, that’s it for now. I have a ton of these types of dishes I pull together.

In the future, I’d like to take on challenges from the blog. Perhaps some of you will write to me at wbsullivan@gmail.com and give me a list of ingredients to try to make something with. I promise I will be most honorable in figuring something out on my own without the help of the Web or a recipe.

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