I have to say, this was a doozy of a dinner. It was unbelievably good! It all came together pretty organically and was rounded out with an amazing bottle of wine.
I spent this blustery and cold New York City day running errands and catching A Single Man with my BFF Kim. If you haven't seen this mastery of a film yet, you need to run yourself over to The Angelika and buy yourselves some tickets. It is a completely beautiful and heartbreaking and charming and intelligent and at times, funny film. You will spend 2 hours in grace, style and longing and it will be time extremely well spent.
Anyway, I digress...back to food. On way my home, walking through SOHO back to the Lower East Side, I talked to my son on the phone. We talked about food and how we are going to make homemade marshmallows on Christmas Eve for hot chocolate and I got motivated to cook something interesting for dinner. I stopped off at Whole Foods and picked up a package of shrimp, capers and whole cream.
I had in my cupboard some Delverde tagliatelle nests that I bought upstate over Thanksgiving and figured I would throw it all together and create a luxurious cream sauce to pair with the shrimp and pasta. I stopped by September Wines and picked up a bottle of Castel Venus Grillo and I was in business.
The final result was so amazingly delicious and so incredibly simple!
Pasta with Garlic Cream Sauce and Shrimp. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
- 8 oz. heavy cream
- Splash of white wine, maybe 1/2 a cup
- 5 cloves of garlic, smashed
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- Capers and their brine
- 3 star anise
- 1tsp chili flakes
- Olive oil and a knob of butter (demonstrated below)
- Salt to taste
- 4 nests of tagliatelle pasta
- 1 ladle of pasta water
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 lb of shrimp
Preparation:
Begin by swirling some olive oil and a dollop of butter into your pot. When the butter has melted and is bubbling throw in your garlic and shallots. Cook them on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. Then add your wine and the juice of half the lemon and cook for another 15 minutes. Take off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes and add all 8 oz. of cream, the chili flakes, star anise, a splash of the caper brine and a sprinkling of salt. Return to a very low heat and let simmer until it's reduced. About 30-40 minutes. Stir and taste often adding salt as necessary.
When the sauce is nearly done, begin your pasta and shrimp. Cook the pasta simply in salted water until al dente. For the shrimp, cook in a swirl of olive oil, a splash of the wine and a squeeze of the other half of lemon.
If you need to thin out the sauce, use a small amount of the pasta water.
After draining the pasta, combine it all together and add the capers when tossing. I forgot to add the capers and could kick myself. I'm sure it would taste incredible though that's why I'm telling you to do it.
The result is a completely luxurious and comforting meal. Pair it with a glass of the Grillo and there you have it. Perfect weeknight dinner!
