This dish is an easy week night meal, and it taste so good too. Easy and delicious meals make great, busy work week dinners.
I love this southwestern version of Shrimp Scampi and I think you would love it too. The bacon and cilantro make this dish yummy.
Serve with crusty bread.
1 12 ounce box of spaghetti or linguine (I use Barilla)
1 whole lemon, zested and juiced
1/3 cup good parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 bunch of roughly chopped cilantro
8-10 Jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 slices of bacon
salt and black pepper
1 medium, ripe tomato
5 Tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine.
Cut up 1 medium tomato into dice size pieces and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 15 minutes and cook spaghetti or linquine as package directs. Drain and set aside. While pasta is cooking, start cooking the bacon.
Saute 4 slices of good bacon in 2 tablespoons of butter, chopped to 1/2 " pieces until cooked, but not dark brown. You don't want bacon bits here. Remove from heat, place on paper towel to drain.
Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and shrimp, saute on each side for 2-3 minutes, until pink. Add a clove of chopped garlic. Stir and deglaze with a 1/2 cup dry white wine. Add 1/2 squeezed lemon, lemon zest and toss. Add cilantro and parmesan cheese, bacon and tomato. Serve with lemon wedge to squeeze over.
Enjoy ~
I love watching Anne Burrell's show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. I like her style, her boldness, heck I even like her "man grunts". She's unique and her recipes are wonderful.
This recipe is wonderful, either warm or cold. I served it with simple slices of grilled chicken, even in the dead of winter. Although, this day was warm, sunny and a wonderful 60 degrees farenheit. In Boston and in January no less.
The way she cooks the couscous in salted water, bay leaves and blood orange peels was so interesting. She inticed me to try it and I had most everything in the house. I didn't have green onions, but chopped a half of yellow onion small and put it in with the cranberries and vinegar to sit for about 1/2 hour on the counter. I think it took the bite out of the plain onion and made it work well. I did doubt her love for plain celery here, but it was a fabulous addition, so nice and crisp. I added julienned red leaf lettuce, because I didn't have any parsley either..... and it worked wonderfully.
So do give this dish a try, you won't be disappointed, I promise.
Here's the link to her recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/israeli-couscous-with-celery-scallions-and-cranberries-recipe/index.html
I love potatoes, well any carb really. But, I am ever so in love with potatoes, really. I have made many kinds of potato dishes over the years, but this one is a cinch to make and it's delcious too. And it's all baked in a muffin tin, how easy is that?
No real recipe, just have on hand some very thinly sliced potatoes. I used a mandoline, on a very thin setting. If you have a food processor, it will work too, or even a good sharp knife. The potatoes need to be really thinly sliced, that's all. Just potatoes, salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. It makes quite a statement on your dinner table too.
Here is what I did.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter, brush the inside of a six holder cupcake/muffin pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
Now take about three slices of potato and lay them in each muffin slot. Brush with a little butter and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, just a pinch of each. Place 2 or 3 slices more on top of the first layer and brush again with a little butter. Repeat layers until muffin slot is filled. Sprinkle with a little more salt, pepper, and finish with a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves.
You will need about 3 large potatoes to fill a six muffin pan. Press the potatoes down with your fingers gently as you make your layers.
Place in the oven uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, uncovered. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
These will come out of the muffin tins easily. I used a thin spatular to take them out and you can serve them either straight out or invert them and they will look like the one in the middle of the above picture. They look gorgeous either way don't you agree? Here's a closer look at the inverted version. Just adorable and each muffin tin of potatoes is just enough for one serving.
Oh did I say how simple these potatoes are to make? Well, they are foolproof and taste simply delicious. And the ideas are endless too. Any flavor combination you'd like you could do. Next time, I will be trying some parmesan cheese, sprinkled in between the layers. Because next to my love for potatoes, is my love for cheese!
Enjoy ~
