A Lighter Pasta With Shrimp

I love a spiralized vegetable noodle. And get it out of your head, it’s not because I don’t eat pasta, it’s because it’s another fun way to work a vegetable into my day. Spiralized zucchini noodles take well to light sauces, think pestos and reds made with fresh tomatoes, not heavy reds using canned tomatoes, cream or meat bases. Bright side, veggie noodles can also be combined with more vegetable toppings to really pack in that colorful love your mind and energy stores will thank you for (Note: if you want to make a heavier sauce or a classic red, you’ll want to pair it with a butternut squash, sweet potato or turnip noodle and that'll come up on Tina to Table for sure, I have a fall butternut squash baked ziti that's sorta to die for - well, to write home about ... I think you get it).

Last week’s farmers market jaunt presented me with a new tomato. As I scoped heirlooms a plenty, thought about use and their $3.99 per pound price tag, I asked the man who ran the stand (I’ll get his name next week when I return to the south, I promise) which were his favorite tomato on his table. The tomato varieties included heirlooms, plums, cherry and another I wasn’t familiar with. His recommendation, if I planned to cook with it, which I’d mentioned I was itching to make a light, fresh sauce - was the celebrity tomato. I wasn’t familiar with the celebrity tomato, but was informed they’re a hybrid tomato, great for cooking - I imagined it was just what I needed for sauces and weeknight grilling.

Mom was feeling fishy and so I looked to the freezer for a quick defrost to pair with a summer sauce, hence I landed on shrimp. Frozen, deveined shrimp are a freezer essential for the home cook - one should never be without a bag if you find yourself needing to get dinner for your family - or single person-ness - on the table any night of the week. Frozen shrimp can be easily defrosted for a meal planned in advance by placing in a colander over a bowl in the refrigerator; and they can also be used for on the fly freestyle meals - easily defrosted under cold running water for 10-15 minutes.

Shrimp with fresh sauce and zucchini noodles is a 25 minute dinner. Remember, your shrimp are frozen and pre-cleaned, a fresh sauce takes 15 minutes and you can even get your zucchini noodles pre-spiralized from your grocers produce section - or grab them in the frozen aisle as Green Giant is cranking these out along with the butternut and beet variety. Serve this with a fresh salad and you’ve got dinner in moments.

Recipe, instructions and tips below this enticing photo!

XO

2 large zucchinis, spiralized
8-10 tomatoes, use plum, roma, celebrity, cherry or a mix - you’ll want about 3-4 cups of fresh tomatoes
24-32 jumbo shrimp, pre-cleaned
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. butter
Sea salt
Optional, fresh basil
Heat 1 T. of olive oil in a large skillet (large enough to hold all of your tomatoes), adding garlic and sauteeing for 3-4 minutes over medium low flame
Add tomatoes, give a good toss and sprinkle of salt, continuing to cook for an additional 15 minutes
While your sauce is cooking, add butter and 1 T. of oil to a large skillet and melt
Add shrimp to this skillet and cook until light pink, about 8-10 minutes, salt and put aside
Combine shrimp with sauce, and make sure you get all of the shrimp, butter/oil goodness scraped out and into your saucepan! Lower flame, just enough to keep warm, add fresh basil and taste for salt - remembering you want enough salt here to know your zucchini noodles will take on all of the sauces flavor as you WILL NOT put any direct salt on your zucchini noodles, you’ll have a watery mess

In the meantime …

Place 1 tsp. of olive oil in a large stock pot, add zucchini noodles and gently toss with tongs for 4 minutes until slightly soft - NOT MUSHY AND SOGGY
Transfer zucchini noodles to a large serving bowl and spoon shrimp sauce on top
Because the sauce is light and chunky, it will seep through the zoodles without any additional tossing
You’ll notice the bottom of your bowl will have some light red broth, and that’s ok, it’s because the heat of the sauce is continuing to cook your zucchini noodles, making them softer and releasing their natural water into your sauce Serve hot and with bread to sop up that shrimpy, salty, tomato sauce broth in the bottom of you bowl - or you can pull a Jerry Corrado by asking for a spoon and slurping it up that way