Good evening, ya'll. Come on up on the "Net Porch" and sit a spell. I can make some coffee if you would like and I have oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies I baked yesterday. They were so good I carried some to the church last night for our FAITH visitation night and those men took after those cookies like a hound dog to pot likker. I do believe if I had carried another dozen they would eaten those also. It is always good to see someone enjoying your cooking. There is no better compliment you can pay a cook.
I thought I would share a recipe I came up with today for "lupper". Remember because we eat in mid-afternoon we combine lunch and supper into lupper. Any way, I had a pound bag of cooked then frozen shrimp I had bought a good while ago and thought I better use them. They are not really good served alone so I fixed a pasta and tomato sauce to go with them. It was scrumpdili-icious. In other words you would steal the plate right out from under your brother if he didn't stab your hand with the fork. So without further conversation or "comersation" as the kids used to say, here it is.
Tomato Basil Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Shrimp
1/2 lb. of cooked, frozen shrimp or freshly cooked shrimp - you can use more or less
4 0z. tomato Basil Pasta - or enough to feed 4. I buy this great pasta from a Mennonite bakery and it is shipped in from Penn. You can usually find it at a good supermarket
Sauce
2 tbsp. olive oil
10-12 Cherry tomatoes - halved
1 med. onion - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 lemon squeezed and zested
Parmesan Cheese
Thaw the shrimp if frozen and warm in a colander over hot water. I placed my colander over the pasta water. Set aside in a covered dish to stay warm. Don't cook them, just heat them.
Cook the pasta in salty, boiling water until soft but not mushy. If you have this homemade type pasta, it takes less time. Any good fettuccine will work. Drain.
Sauce: Put olive oil in skillet and heat. When hot, add the onion and saute for a few minutes then add garlic. Saute until tender and add the halved cherry tomatoes and cook for about 1 minute. You just want to heat the tomatoes. Add can of tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar and Italian seasoning to taste. Cook until hot on medium heat and add the lemon zest and lemon juice.
Pour over the hot pasta, sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese and place the shrimp on top. That and a green salad, toasted french bread and sweet iced tea makes a grand meal.
Shrimp is one of my favorite foods and as a child we had it only on very, very special occasions. Mama preferred oysters and oyster stew and we had that often but shrimp was a rare meal at our house.
As we got older and sold peaches every summer from our orchard, we would go to Gulf Shores, AL for a week. There we would buy shrimp from the shrimp boats as they would come in and boil them and eat until we couldn't hold another one. We would just boil, cool and eat our fill. Once I ate so many I was one sick puppy-child but that didn't turn me against them. The very next chance I had, I ate another bait. That is some good eating if they are not overcooked.
When we lived in North Carolina we lived over on the coast at New Bern where fresh seafood was readily available. Not too far from there in Morehead City, NC is a restaurant named "The Sanitary." Not sure where the name came from but presidents, sports stars and many famous people had eaten there. It was a rustic place on the beach with the dining room out over the water. Their specialty was shrimp grilled in butter. You talk about good! It was grilled when you ordered it and served with a bowl of clarified butter and you ate until you popped. I have not eaten any better since we left North Carolina and I hope someday to eat some there again. If you are ever in that area you must stop in and eat a meal there. Not only is the food good but the scenery is exceptional. You only a few miles from the Outer Banks and it glorious.
I hope you enjoy the recipe and let me know what you think. Just click on the little ole comment box and send me a note.
Nuff said,
The Georgia Peach
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