Dear Shrimp,
You are my go-to comfort food, refreshing appetizer, crowd pleaser, and smile maker.  Whether it be a satisfying shrimp and grits, a tangy coctil camarone, crispy tempura, fresh spring roll, or hearty pasta, I love you.  I love you with lemons, with tomato sauce, with garlic, with spinach, with pasta, with cream, with wine, with butter, with avocados, and with more wine.  If I were given a choice of proteins to select while marooned on a desert island, I would most certainly choose you. . . and some bacon, and some beef shanks, and some ribeyes, and some duck.  Wait, I forgot lobster and turkey. Well, you would certainly be way up there on my list!

Love, Stacey

A weeknight seafood dinner is well within reach when you can fetch some simple ingredients.  It’s a two-pot arrangement, as you’ll want pasta cooked separately.  All the shrimpy, saucy things are managed in one large skillet.

This is another dish we made while traveling in the Airstream. For more travel food inspiration, see The Airstream Chef Facebook group.

Serves 2-3 for a main course, 4-6 if served as a side

Ingredients

• 12 large, raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ lb bucatini (or other pasta favorite)
• ½ lb mushrooms, sliced
• ½ C chopped yellow onion
• 2 T chopped fresh garlic
• 1 ½  C frozen spinach (or 3 C fresh)
• ½ C dry white wine
• 1 C cream or half and half (or more!)
• 4 T butter
• 2 T EVOO
• ½ t nutmeg
• ½ t salt
• ¼ t white pepper (use black if that’s what you have)
• A dash of celery salt (a little goes a long way)
• A dash of cayenne pepper (or not)
• 1 C Manchego cheese (or any other hard cheese like Parmesan)

Method

• Get your pasta going in salted water.  Follow cooking times for your brand.  Mine took 9 minutes once boiling.
• In a large skillet or sauté pan, melt butter with EVOO.  Add onions and mushrooms. S&P to taste. When they look like they are softening, add garlic.  Sauté until the garlic begins to perfume your kitchen.
• With heat fairly high, add your wine to deglaze the pan.  Stir to combine.
• Add the cream/ half and half.  Stir.
• Add the frozen spinach and stir.
• Let the mixture come up to bubbling and get comfortable with the sauciness of it all.  You will want it to reduce slightly to be a bit thicker than the cream.
• Add the raw shrimp and stir into sauce for 2 minutes.  Take off the burner and cover for 5 minutes or so, until you are ready for your pasta.
• When your pasta is done, use tongs to drop it into your shrimp and mushroom sauce.  The heat from the pasta will rewarm the dish.  If it is too soupy, wait a bit, as the pasta may absorb the liquid.  You can always put it back on the burner to reduce.  On the other hand, if it is too thick, add some pasta water or cream.
• Sprinkle with nutmeg and cayenne, celery salt.  Taste and add more if needed. Stir to combine.
• Plate and then dress with more sauce and a garnish of cheese.

Stay briny,

–Stacey