creole-esque pasta with shrimp

I’m honestly not sure what to call this pasta. When the fork hit my mouth, I thought of gumbo and jambalaya and all those wonderful Creole flavors, although I’m not sure that was the original intent.

I also am not the designer of this dish. This dish came together after my boyfriend realized that some of the peppers from our garden needed to be eaten like, now, and we had a few other leftover veggies that were running low on shelf life. So he sautéed them in a pan with oil, boiled some water, and made me dinner. And it was delicious. And took about twenty minutes.

Creole-esque Pasta with Shrimp
Serves 2
Note: We tend to use frozen, raw shrimp. When we can find them already peeled and deveined, we do that as a time-saver. This week, we could only find deveined, but peeling them is a cinch. Just put them in a colander under running cold water (or, if you’re in Texas and in a drought, in a colander in a sinkful of cold water) and in about ten minutes, they’re soft enough to peel.

You will need:
1/2 lb. pasta
10-12 large shrimp
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Cayenne pepper, to taste (substitute with red pepper flakes, if desired)
Creole seasoning
Splash of heavy cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste

Boil a pot of water and cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, but don’t let the butter burn. Add the shrimp and cook about 1 minute. Turn all shrimp and cook about 30 seconds. Remove from heat.*

Add onion, pepper, garlic, and spices, and cook until softened and slightly caramelized. Add pasta and shrimp to skillet and toss to coat pasta in oil and vegetables. Add cream and toss to evenly distribute. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Serve in bowls and top with parmesan cheese.

*The key to not overcooking shrimp is to undercook them. When you remove them from the heat to a bowl, they will continue to cook each other for a few more minutes. For pasta, they also continue cooking when you add them to the hot noodles. You want them to be just barely opaque when you cook them initially.

shrimp scampi pasta

Don’t be like me, kids. Look before you leap. Think about the cooking process start to finish, and take appropriate steps to ensure that everything comes together at the right times.

Do not, for example, allow the butter to get too brown before you add the onions and garlic. It would also be advisable to start a pot of water boiling before you heat the oil at all; while you wait for the water to boil so you can prepare pasta, your onions and garlic will become darker in color than you would prefer. It is also advisable not to add the shrimp to the hot pan until the pasta is close to done. If you are like me, and you don’t even start a pot of water before your shrimp are perfectly opaque, then you will become paranoid about the shrimp overcooking and becoming rubbery.

Even if you do all of these things, however (brown the butter, burn the garlic, overcook the shrimp, forget to season until the last moment, and undercook ever-so-slightly the pasta), this dish will still be edible. The shrimp were much more forgiving than I expected them to be (taking them off the heat as soon as I realized my timing errors ensured that they didn’t continue cooking for too long), and the brightness of fresh parsley surprisingly covers a multitude of sins. Despite the near-horrific experience I had with this dish, I still can’t wait to make it again. With the slightest amount of forethought, this dish is miraculously simple enough for a weeknight meal, while still fancy enough for date night.

Shrimp Scampi Pasta
Serves 2
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Note: The Pioneer Woman uses a dash or two of Tobasco sauce to flavor this dish. I went a little too light on the sauce and didn’t get as much spice as I wanted, so I would go heavier next time. Switching to red chili flakes would also spice things up.
If using frozen shrimp, use raw shrimp. Do not buy cooked frozen shrimp. Ever. Trust me. If using raw shrimp or frozen shrimp in their shells, make sure they are shelled, cleaned, and deveined before cooking.

You will need:
1/2 lb. thin pasta, such as angel hair
1 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
~16 medium-sized shrimp (see note)
Dash Tobasco sauce (see note)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
Shredded parmesan cheese, to taste

Start a pot of water boiling. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.

Meanwhile, melt oil and butter together in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until fragrant and onions are tender. Add shrimp, Tobasco sauce, salt and pepper, and lemon juice. Cook about 1 minute on one side, then turn shrimp and cook until they look like tiny C’s. (If they turn to O’s, you have overcooked them, but do not despair. They are probably fine, and you’ll do better next time.)

Add cooked pasta to skillet. Toss, coating pasta with the delicious butter sauce. Add parsley and toss. Serve immediately with parmesan cheese, and garnish with an extra lemon wedge if desired.