Switching gears again.
I know you were all expecting a Thai recipe (weren’t you) but I’m in a pasta mood today. In almost 4 months of traveling can you guess how many times I’ve had American/Italian style pizza?
Just once.
In Kyoto, Japan less than a week into our traveling adventures, after a home cooked Japanese meal I (as promised) treated our Couchsurfing hosts to an American meal – pasta.
Trust me, trying to buy ingredients for an Italian themed dish in a Japanese grocery store is slightly tricky. With all the labels in Japanese I could only hope that the mini dairy-esque container I selected was heavy cream and the bag of yellow strips was indeed shredded cheese (preferably Parmesan or Cheddar and hopefully not the dreadful American plastic tasting one).
The pasta meal was a success with our surgeon host who said it was better than the pasta dish at the local Ritz Carlton (a slight exaggeration probably) and the 1 year old baby slurping the noodles through its few teeth.
Since that night it’s basically been all Asian food for the last 3+ months (with a sprinkling of Pizza Hut and fast food here and there of course).
So, though I haven’t made this pasta dish in a while, it was one of the last recipes I made before embarking on this journey, and it’s about time I share it!
For shrimp and pasta lovers out there I say this dish is perfect. For me? I’m perfectly happy eating my shrimp with mayonnaise, sans pasta, but I somehow doubt anyone else agrees…
This recipe is fairly simple but with fresh quality ingredients you really don’t need too much. Aim for the best Parmesan – it’ll make a world of difference.
Next time I prepare a meal for our couchsurfing hosts, perhaps I’ll go with this one…
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 lemon, juiced and ½ lemon zested
- ⅓ cup white wine
- 1 ounce basil, slivered
- ½ cup Parmesan, grated or shredded
- 8 ounces angel hair pasta (use brown rice pasta for gluten free version), cooked according to package directions
- Melt butter and olive oil in pan over medium heat. Add red pepper flakes, shallots and garlic. Cook until fragrant 1-2 minutes.
- Add shrimp and cook 1-2 minutes.
- Add lemon juice, zest and white wine. Cook until shrimp is cooked through and sauce has thickened slightly.
- Remove from heat. Add parmesan and basil, mix until combined.
- Serve over pasta, sprinkled with extra basil and Parmesan.
Welcome to Avocado Pesto! Long time foodie and travel enthusiast, I started this blog to share my curious culinary efforts and kitchen endeavors. Here you'll find a smorgasbord of ethnic cuisines and hopefully a few humorous tales too.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks easy and good! I remember when I lived in Korea all I wanted was good pizza, an enchilada and a bagel
Bree {Skinny Mommy} recently posted..Southwestern Black Bean “Stoup”
Thanks! Haha oh bagels — haven’t had one of those in MONTHS! Same for enchiladas… and cream cheese… and probably so many other things!
Looks really good!! Your photography skills are really good! I wish I had a dslr as well. Phone cam doesn’t take good pictures. By the way, this is one tasty dish! Keep it up!
Thanks! It’s taken a bit of time to improve my photos but it’s all thanks to the dslr and Lightroom!