Although I love slaving away in a kitchen for eight hours (no really, I do), I also get hangry quite often, and need recipes that take under 30 minutes start to finish. Pasta is really the ticket then! This recipe I copied after eating a similar version out at a restaurant somewhere. It's easy to make, especially if you've been a good student and have been making and freezing your own stocks - if you have not, there is still hope for you in either bullion or prepared clam juice.
Ingredients
4 servings cooked fettuccine (follow directions on the box)
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ripe tomatoes, seeded and cut into thick, long strips (or cherry tomatoes, halved)
1 green onion (white part only), chopped
1 c spinach, chopped
2 c fresh shrimp (peeled or unpeeled, it depends on how much work you want to do)
1/2 c fish broth (can come from bullion cubes or can use clam juice)
swig of white wine
butter
olive oil
Preparation
If you've been reading this blog (or taking impromptu cooking lessons which consist of drinking wine while watching me cook), you know that the elements of a good sauce are: an acid, a fat, and a broth. In this case, our acid will be tomatoes and white wine, our fats will be butter and olive oil, and our broth will be fish broth. Mmm. So hungry. Ok, to to the recipe. Cook your fettuccine and then strain and set it aside with a little cold water so it doesn't keep cooking.
In a frying pan, turn heat to medium and melt a spoonful of butter and a swig of olive oil (you use both to get the taste of the butter, but the oil prevents it from browning). Add the shrimp and cook until just before done - if shell is on, they will turn pink and yellow; if they are shell off, they will just begin to turn white. Remove the shrimp to a plate. Add the garlic and the green onion to the leftover oil, and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes and keep on medium heat, stirring until the tomatoes begin to loosen up and get watery. (Tomato side note: if possible, keep your tomatoes at room temp! They don't get as mealy that way). Add spinach and continue cooking until just beginning to wilt.
Turn your heat up to high and add a swig of white wine. Cook on high until it reduces and starts to get syrupy. Add your broth and keep on medium heat until it also reduces to a syrupy consistency. Add your shrimp back in with any collected juices. If your sauce is too watery, you can do two things: wait longer, or separately, take a bit of the broth and mix it with some cornstarch in a separate container (less than 1 tsp cornstarch), then add that back into the sauce.
Taste the sauce for salt, and either add some or add a wee bit of butter. Toss fettuccine into the same pan, coating it all well. Since I'm sometimes bad at calculating proportions, I add the fettuccine gradually lest I have made too little sauce. Plate up and serve!
Your fish broth
Behold the majority of your ingredients
onion, garlic, and tomatoes
your finished product
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