Cooking with Kurt: Pesto Shrimp Pasta

Food, Recipes — By on November 19, 2009 10:43 am

I made my own pesto… it is thicker, less oily but tastes just as good.  OH! And it coats pasta better!  I also need to be more diligent at taking pictures :-(

Ingredients

Fresh Basil (I went with a 2.5oz package from the local grocery store)
1/4 cup almonds (raw)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup freshly grated aged Parmesan cheese
Cilantro (a handful of leaves only)
Garlic (3 cloves)
31/40 Shrimp (frozen/fresh with shell… I’ll leave quantity/serving size to you…)
Penne pasta

Cooking

We’ll start with the shrimp to marinate.  Remove the shells and tails from your shrimp and in put them in a mixing bowl with some olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper and let it sit while we prepare everything else.

For the pesto, I use a blender since I can pour oil while everything was mixing.

Wash your basil and cilantro.  I generally put my leafy stuff in a huge bowl and fill it with water.  Give it a quick stir and let the particulates settle for a couple of minutes.  Remove all leafy objects to a strainer and dump the water (I throw it outside to water the lawn).  Repeat rinse 1 more time.

Now, roughly crush your almonds in the blender and put in a small separate bowl.  In your now empty blender, add your garlic, about 1/4 cup of olive oil and your leafy herbs.  BLEND!  You might need to stop blending here and there to push down your leaves and you might need to add some more olive oil to get things moving but be sure to add a little at a time.  Once you have a thick paste, add your cheese and almonds and some additional olive oil to get things moving.  Be sure to taste it every once in awhile and season with salt and pepper.

This makes a lot so be sure you have a storage container on hand.

As for the shrimp and pasta, cook your pasta al dente (just before it gets completely soft).  Fry up your shrimp and quickly remove from heat.  Once everything is cooked, add your pasta to the pan where you cooked your shrimp.  Add your shrimp back and add your pesto.  Start with a spoonful and see how far that gets you.  Once you’ve been able to coat everything, serve it up and enjoy!

Tags: , , , ,
content from single.php