Pu

martedì 8 maggio 2018

PENNE WITH FRESH TOMATO SAUCE, TIGER SHRIMP AND ARTICHOKES

Entree - Lactose free; can be gluten free (READ footnotes)


1 lb of Italian penne pasta

1/2 lb frozen tiger shrimp, thawed, shelled and deveined.

1 bag frozen artichokes (or 2 fresh ones, cleaned and cut in wedges)

4 medium tomatoes, ripe but firm

4 leaves of fresh basil, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved

2 tbsp of Italian extra virgin olive oil

Italian sea salt



Dice the tomatoes, put them in a bowl along with garlic, basil amd salt. Stir and set aside to marinate, allowing tomatoes to pull out their juice.

In the mean time, bring a large pot of water to boil; when water boils add salt cook artichokes to your desired doneness. Drain them and set aside.

In the meantime, warm up the olive oil in a skillet and sear shrimp on both sides, then stir in artichokes.

Bring water back to a boil, add pasta and stir.

At the same time, add the tomatoes with thier juice in the skillet with artichokes and shrimp, stirring. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Once al dente, drain the pasta, transfer it in the skillet and toss it with the sauce, sautee for a couple of minutes and serve.

This recipe is for 4-6 people depending on what else is served.



- For this recipe, a short cut pasta is better, as long as it's high quality.

- Shortcut: use good artichoke hearts packed in oil, like the ones we sell, and shelled, deveined shrimp; in this case, add the thawed shrimp to the sauce at the end of cooking, so they won't become tough. Also, you can use a very good pasta sauce like our Pomodorina!

- Add a little heat to your dish by sauteeing a dry Italian hot red pepper in the olive oil before searing the shrimp.

- Don't add oil to the pasta water: it will coat your pasta and prevent sauce from sticking to your pasta. Just stir it for the first minute or so.

- Always save some of the cooking water, in case your sauce thickens too much.

- If you don't like the tomato peel, peel them this way: make a cross on the bottom of the tomatoes, put them in boiling water for 30 seconds or 1 minute depending on their size, remove them from water and the peel will come away easily.

- It's lactose free. It can be gluten free if you use gluten free Italian pasta.