back to basics

It’s only day two of my challenge, and I’m already having a great time with it. I decided to take it a step further today when I made my lunch, and I didn’t follow a recipe. Now, I’m a baker at heart, so cooking doesn’t come natural to me. It wasn’t until I became better at baking, at paying attention to the humidity in the air, the way a dough would absorb more flour some days, less on others, that I really started to become a better cook.

Cooking is about paying attention to the food. It’s also about experimenting. How does it taste if I combine X and Y in this way? What if I do it that way? I don’t have recipes for dishes like lasagna or chili, because I actually cook when I make them.

Today I experimented with pasta and frozen shrimp. If you’ve never tried frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, get thee to a store immediately! I cooked, ate, and cleaned up my kitchen in an hour. The cleaning included unloading and reloading the dishwasher, and disinfecting the countertops, my cutting board, and the stove.

Basically, I started by bringing water to a boil for the whole wheat linguine. I tossed a clove of garlic in the water to impart a little garlic flavor to the noodles. In a saute pan, I heated olive oil and a clove of garlic over moderately high heat. I tossed the frozen shrimp in the pan for a minute per side, then removed them to a plate (and tossed the garlic clove - it was there merely to infuse the oil). Next, I tossed in most of what was left of a can of diced tomatoes (unsalted), a few sprigs of thyme, and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. I seasoned the shrimp and the tomatoes with salt and pepper. During this process, the water started to boil, so I salted it and added the linguine. Whole wheat linguine takes longer to cook than regular, but I set the timer for just 9 minutes, because I wanted to finish cooking the linguine with the sauce.

I let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes, then added about half a glass of white wine to the sauce. I also added some chopped parsley, and let it simmer until the noodles were done. I added the linguine to the saute pan, squeezed the juice of 1 lemon into the pan, and added the shrimp. Gave everything a good stir, removed it from the heat, and covered for about five minutes to let the noodles and shrimp absorb the flavors.

I garnished the finished product with additional chopped parsley, and some grated parmesan. It was a lovely dish, very light but satisfying.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS