Fiddle Heads Attempt #4

I just found this picture on my camera. Geoff and I made this for dinner a couple weeks ago after having gone out for drinks with his sister and brother-in-law. His brother-in-law ordered a pasta with lots of garlic, some tomatoes and oil. It smelled so good, I thought about it for days. It seemed easy enough so we gave it a shot and added a couple of extras.

Ingredients:
Pasta
Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Fiddle Heads, ends trimmed and washed
Tomatoes (diced, or cherry tomatoes cut in half)
4 cloves garlic, chopped as much as possible
Olive oil
Butter
4 tsp lemon juice

1. Boil fiddle heads for 5 minutes
2. When fiddle heads are done, begin boiling pasta (should take about 10 minutes for the pasta to be ready)
3. While the pasta is cooking, cook shrimp in a little bit of butter, 2 tsp lemon juice and garlic
4. Fry fiddle heads in a little butter and 2 tsp lemon juice
5. Once pasta is done, drain and put back in the pot, add fiddle heads, shrimp diced tomatoes and garlic. Toss with enough oil to just cover the noodles.
   

Lemon-Shrimp Pasta

While browsing through tastespotting (or maybe foodgawker) we saw a recipe with garlic shrimp and orzo pasta. It looked really tasty and after cleaning out the freezer, we found that there was 3 bags of shrimp stashed away from months ago so we gave it our own spin.

I'm not sure who originally posted the recipe but we used it as a starter for our own. The original didn't have any veggies and we had several lemons sitting in the fridge so we made our best attempt at customizing this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 - 1 + 1/2 cups of Orzo pasta depending on how hungry you are
2 tsp diced garlic
2 big handfuls of baby spinach, washed
an assortment of mushrooms, cleaned (we had 3 or 4 different kinds)
lemon juice
3 tbsp butter
peeled and deveined shrimp
olive oil
parsley

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, salt it and add pasta (should take about 10 minutes to cook)
2. In a frying pan, add 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp garlic and saute the mushrooms until they soften a bit. Then add spinach until wilted
3. Meanwhile, in another pan, melt remaining butter and add remaining garlic. Add shrimp, squeeze 1/2 of a lemon's worth of juice on top. Cook shrimp 1-2 minutes per side
4. Pasta should be done, drain, mix in a little olive oil, mix in veggies and shrimp. Add as much parsley as you like to make it prettier.
   

Creamy Vodka and Smoked Salmon Pasta

Geoff and I went out for dinner a couple of weeks ago and had a pasta dish really similar to this. It was so good we wanted to have it again. Luckily, it was also easy enough to recreate at home.

It was pretty cheap for us to make this recipe since my dad had given me a smoked salmon that his boss had given him. We had sectioned it off and froze it in separate baggies for easy meal use. Also, there was half a mickey of vodka hidden in the back of the fridge from months ago that had been long forgotten about (unfortunately!) so our entire meal only cost maybe $8.

Unfortunately, we made enough to feed a ravenously hungry family of 4. Far too much for the two of us, so when looking at the ingredients, remember, its for at least 4 people to eat until they can eat no more.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 box bow tie pasta (or enough from a bag to feed 4)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes ( you could use crushed, but I like the chunks of tomato)
1 can tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup vodka
1 small jar of capers
smoked salmon (as much as you want, I'm not sure how much we used, but it was quite a bit)
4-5 tbsp cream cheese (not really necessary, just tasty and we had bought cream cheese in bulk from Costco that needed to be eaten)

1. Bring a pot to boil for pasta, cook pasta al dente
   
2. Melt butter in a pot or pan or roasting pan that will be large enough for the sauce AND all of the pasta
3. Add red pepper flakes, garlic and let cook for 30 second, then add vodka to butter, bring to a boil. Let simmer for 2 minutes
4. Add the cans of diced tomato and tomato paste along with the cream to the vodka mixture. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 5 minutes
5. Now if you're going to, add cream cheese. Slice up the smoked salmon and add it to the mix along with the jar of drained capers.
6. Drain the pasta, and stir it into the tomato mix and serve!
   

Spicy Pasta with Shrimp and Grape Tomatoes

Geoff and I made up this pasta as we went last night. We wanted to try and take pictures before it was too dark so we kind of rushed this meal. It was pretty tasty and really easy.

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

200g pasta of your choice (we chose springs)
3/4 of a carton of grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
5 cloves chopped garlic
1 jalapeno pepper
1 other hot pepper that was green and small
12 shrimp (6 each!)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbs olive oil
2tbs butter
grated Parmesan cheese to your liking
salt and pepper to taste

1. Defrost and peel shrimp
2. Boil pasta until al dente
3. While pasta cooks, melt butter in pan, add garlic for 20 seconds with red pepper flakes.
4. Add peppers to pan, then add shrimp
5. Cook shrimp until they curl up and turn pink (1-2 minutes per side)
6. Toss pasta with olive oil then dump in everything from the frying pan
7. Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste

You could toss in some spinach to this recipe for extra fiber, but we used pasta that already had lots of fiber and protein added to it (Catelli has made white pasta healthy, finally!)

Pecan Mascarpone Pasta

This wasn't my favourite meal ever. I saw pictures of this pasta on eatmakeread and it looked so good I had to try it. Unfortunately, when I actually went to make the pasta, i realized I was missing a few of the key ingredients, namely nutmeg and macadameia nuts. Don't get me wrong, the pasta was good, it just wasn't all I had hoped for. Next time I might use some cream cheese, or actually follow the recipe exactly as they had it on eatmakeread and not use garlic.
Geoff loved it though, and its really easy to make at least!

(Serves 2)
Inspired by http://eatmakeread.com/2009/02/24/spaghetti-with-marscapone-meyer-lemon-spinach-and-hazelnuts/
Juice from 1 lemon
Zest from ½ lemon
½ cup mascarpone cheese
½ lb noodles
5 cups roughly chopped spinach
½ cup toasted chopped pecans
1-2 cloves garlic

1. Combine zest, lemon juice, cheese, salt, pepper, garlic in a bowl
2. Cook pasta until al dente, save ½ cup of pasta water
3. Drain pasta, return to pot. Set over low heat. Add mascarpone sauce and spinach until it begins to wilt. Add ¼ cup of pasta water to keep the sauce fluid, add more if necessary
4. Cook until spinach is wilted, toss in pecans and serve!