(Warning: Pic Heavy) Tonight's no name macaroni ... er ... pasta

[Stinky The Clown]

Tonight we made a meal of shrimp, some linguine, some herbs and various condimenti. We never made this before and will likely never make it exactly the same again. But the method is classic and you can make at least 123,413 variations on this ... at least that's the number I'm aware of.

In essence, you start the sauce when you put your water for the macaroni on to boil. With the correct timing, it all comes off the heat at the same time. You marry things up and eat it.

Every variation of this starts with olive oil in a skillet, followed by herbs, condimenti, and seasonings to taste. Dump on the pasta. That's it.

Here's tonight's adventure:


I peeled a pound of shrimp. As they'll be cut up, the size is unimportant. I used 21/25 because I had some on hand in the freezer.


For the herbs, I used the usual suspects: Basil, oregano, and flat leaf parsley. I also used garlic.


Here's an easy way to chop herbs. Pull the leafy parts off the stems. Lay the large leaves on your cutting board. In this case, that was the basil. Lay the other herbs on top. Roll it up (think of a joint ... that's the idea :) )


Slice the roll of herbs. The French might call this cut a chiffonade. I just call it convenient.


I prefer to slice my garlic instead of chopping it too fine. With less exposed surface, the garlic is a bit sweeter and more subtle. Chopping is fine, too, but the flavor is more pungent. Note that this garlic has some green in it where new shoots are starting. In actual fact, this can make the dish bitter sometimes. I've never had that problem with this particular method as the garlic does not cook very long.


I used some dried cepes (porcini mushrooms). Rehydrate them in hot water. Add just enough hot water to cover the 'shrooms. Allow them to steep in the water for about 10 minutes, remove them from the water, but SAVE THE WATER. It has an incredible flavor and will be used in the dish later. Squeeze the water out of the cepes back into the bowl. Squeeze hard, you won't hurt 'em. Then slice the cepes into a rough julienne.


Cut the shrimp into small pieces. Pretty much bite size. This is optional. You could also leave them whole, or cut some and save a few as a garnish.


I cut a whole roasted pepper into a julienne, too.


Here's the entire mise en place. Clockwise from left, roasted peppers, shrimps, mushroom liquid, chopped mushrooms, garlic slices, and herbs.


Add a goodly amount of olive oil to the skillet. As the olive oil is the body of the sauce, be generous. Let it get medium hot.


Add the garlic and let it just start to show a hint of browning. Keep it moving or it could catch and burn.


Add the shrimps. Let them cook until reasonably pink all over and nearly, but not quite, cooked through.


Add the mushrooms and peppers and continue to cook, stirring as needed.


Add salt .......


.... and pepper to taste.


Add the mushroom liquor ......


..... and 2/3 of the herbs. We'll add the last 1/3 later.


Add a few splashes of dry vermouth (quite optional). I like the flavor of either vermouth or pernod with shellfish, but that's just me. Let it all cook for a minute or three. Until the pasta is done.


Dump everything on the drained (but NOT rinsed) pasta.


Top with the rest of the herbs and some more EVOO. This last step gives a three dimensional feel to the taste. The cooked version and the fresh version of the flavors. Complex, easy to do, and no more trouble or cost than not doing it. I find this step the most important one. Everything comes alive when you do this.


Set it on the table. A nice fruity wine goes well with it. Sparkly bought some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from their Marlborough region. Cheap enough and with a Bordeaux style, but with more fruit to the taste and the nose.

Questo è buono mangia! (This is good eats!)

[bearfan454]

1. I love your recipe.

That looks superb. Great pics too.

[eleny]

2. You and bearfan are driving me nuts tonight!

This looks delish!

[Stinky The Clown]

3. It was delish

I licked the bowl clean. ;)

[Rhiannon12866]

4. This is magic! Thank you! And the pix help so much! Amazing!

This is truly one for the bookmarks! What talented people are on DU!:D

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Someone sent me a private message about this

In the step where I add the hot water to the mushrooms .... that's a hot water dispenser. Hot tap water is not hot enough. You need boiling water. That wasn't clear in my original post.

[cmf]

6. I would love to dine at the Sparkly house one day!

Looks great - you've inspired me to make something similar on Saturday.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Anytime! Like the old roadhouses, the sign in our window says:

Welcome! Open All Night.

Variations on this are endless. You can go with all veggies. The peppers and any kind of mushrooms. Three colors of peppers and no mushrooms. If you use peppers, cook them first, separately. Do them in the oven, whole, or do them on the grill outdoors, cut in half and coated lightly but completely with olive oil and some salt. In fact, for any veggies you may want to use, they need to be cooked. This doesn't stay on the heat long enough to do much more than seafood.

You could also do this but omit the peppers and mushrooms and use canned clams and the can liquid too, if it seems to need more liquid, use all or part of a bottle of clam juice. Add a squeeze or two of lemon if you want. Or lime for a real variation. Use cilantro as the only herb if you use lime and it will have a nice tropical taste to it. Use scallops instead of the clams. Or squid. But if you use squid, add it at the very last second and let it cook no more than a minute to a minute and a half. Any more and the squid will have the consistency of white tire patches!

Anyway ... this sauce is a great way to use leftovers or to use stuff from your pantry when you don't want to shop. I've used pine nuts and capers, and olives, and .... and ..... and .....

We probably do this once every two weeks and it is rarely even similar to the last version. Have fun with it!

[tishaLA]

8. Have I told you I love your kitchen?

I always mean to when you post pics. It looks lived in yet professional. I love all the stainless.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. "lived in yet professional"

Thanks!!!!



That's exactly what we wanted. Also warm. That doesn't show well in these pictures, but the colors are a rust on the soffits above the cabinets, deep yellow above the counters, and a soft, buttery yellow on the rest of the walls. The floor is sorta the color of the red rocks like you find in Arizona (not that we have a southwest thing going). This is the floor material:



The overall style is sorta (ultra) modern Italian. Sparkly did the color choices, I did the design and specifyin'.

Maybe I'll post some pictures of just the kitchen. I can't find the thread now, but I had posted a picture of our pot rack and pot shelves in response to another thread.

The kitchen's still pretty new. We redid it two summers ago, so it is about a year and a half old.

[SW FL Dem]

10. Sounds totally yummy! love the pics

your kitchen looks great.