I may have mentioned this before, but I’m a sucker for pasta…or just Italian food in general. Well, I’m also a fan of shrimp. And wine. Okay fine, so I pretty much love everything that’s involved with this recipe, which would explain why I enjoyed this altogether. I’ve started cooking with wine here over the past few months for the first time, and I’ll have to admit that it’s pretty wonderful. The aroma, the flavor, the taste testing before it gets cooked…oops. The cat is outta the bag. This is a light sauce, which somewhat reminds me of Chicken Marsala. The sauce just barely coats the noodles just enough for the moisture and flavor.
When it comes to buying meat though, I’m somewhat picky and cautious about where I buy it from. Around here, there are quite a few different options for places to buy meat, but since I really haven’t started experimenting with all of this, most of my meat purchases are at the grocery store. Now, when it comes to seafood, I wanted to make sure that it was purchased from a “better than average” supplier, so off to the meat market. I have a confession to make…this was my first time going to a meat market. Yes, I know. It was actually a good start though, especially considering once we start the meat class in culinary school in January, frequent visits to the meat market will be inevitable. So, let’s just roll with it.
I walked in to the meat market and stood in awe. Look at all of these incredible choices of meat! I cried inside my head as I walked in. The guy behind the counter watched me, and patiently waited for me to make my way over to the counter. I told him what I needed, and he got it together for me. I explained to him that this was my first time in a meat market and was going to culinary school, so he would see a lot more of me as time went on. After I had my shrimp in hand, the snooping around began. I stared at each meat item through the glass, reading the description and automatically thinking about how I could cook each item and what type of recipe to use it in. It was fabulous. Oh, and the questions came, as I moved along the window, pointing at different items, asking what kind of stuffing was in this, if they make these daily, etc. On my way out at the cashier, I picked up some stone ground grits. The hubster loves them, and he also loves shrimp and grits…so that is another recipe that will be experimented with later. In the meantime though, we gobbled this dish down…including my little pumpkin, who ate two whole plates of the pasta. She’s a noodle girl. She gets that from her Mama.
For the White Wine Sauce:
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 stick butter
In a saucepan, heat stove to medium heat. Add wine and chicken broth. Measure heavy cream, then whisk in cornstarch until there are no clumps of powder. Add to saucepan. Add remaining ingredients, cooking at medium heat until sauce becomes a slightly thicker texture. Cook 8 oz. linguine pasta according to package directions and drain. Mix sauce with cooked noodles and cooked shrimp, serve warm.
For the Shrimp:
1 pound shrimp, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
Melt butter in skillet on medium/high heat. Place shrimp in skillet and cook on both sides, until pink. For perfect measure, check internal temperature of shrimp, which should be a minimum of 145 degrees.
