Here’s the deal: this sauce is pretty darned perfect – nicely garlicky, with a hit of Parmesan and parsley and black pepper – but the addition of some shrimps left over from a holiday cocktail platter just nudged it over the top into really tasty.
And the best thing? You can put it together in under 30 minutes – and that’s including boiling the pasta! Well, that and the fact that I cut out the butter called for in some recipes in favor of all olive oil, so, yeh, this is one rich sauce, but it’s kinda, sorta healthy, too.
INGREDIENTS
•16 oz. pasta – I used thin spaghetti
•1/4 cup olive oil
•4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
•1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
•Shrimp – I used leftover cooked (optional)
•1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
•Freshly ground black pepper
– Tellicherry, if you can get it, trust me, you want this pepper
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water according to package directions, then drain, toss with a bit of the cooking water or butter, pop back into the cooking pot, and set aside in a warm spot while you make the sauce.
Heat the oil in a sauté or stir fry pan over medium heat, then add the garlic and cook for three or four minutes.
Stir in the parsley and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, until the herbs are limp but still green.
Add the cooked shrimp and stir until heated through. If you happen to be using fresh, raw shrimp, add it when you do the parsley and cook, stirring, until the shrimp is pink and tender and nicely done.
Add the pasta to the pan, toss with the sauce, then sprinkle with cheese and toss again to coat and heat through.
Your dinner, done.
Except…
don’t forget the pepper!
I got a little, tiny but carried away with the Aleppo pepper on my bowl of pasta – but it was still really good – and a fresh grating of Tellicherry pepper over it all at the end brought all of the flavors together in an almost surprising way, so, go ahead and skip the Aleppo if you like, but you have only yourself to blame if you skimp on the Tellicherry.