Vegetable and Shrimp Angel Hair Pasta

There are few things that I make time and time again. This pasta dish is one of them. I recall making something sort of similar to this for the first time with my best friend. I enjoyed what we had made so much that I went home the next week really wanting to make something like it. I took some memory of what my best friend and I did and came up with my own concoction, one that now included shrimp and many more vegetables. I didn’t have any recipe I was following, measurements or a plan in mind, I just got the ingredients I wanted and got to cooking.

The end result: this delicious pasta dish that has onion, garlic, asparagus, tomato, artichokes and shrimp all coated in a light white wine sauce. It’s a mouthful to say all of what is in it, so I never really know what to call it. To this day, I can’t get enough of this pasta. It’s so easy to make! It’s one of those things where you don’t really need to have exact measurements of anything, you can kind of eye ball whatever you have, and you can adjust all the ingredients to include more or less. You really can’t mess it up. I always make enough so that I have extra leftovers for the next day, so this recipe is for about 4 servings (and you’ll really want to make all those servings, too). This has truly become my signature pasta dish. As always, be sure to read the recipe in its entirety, and the notes I have left, prior to cooking.

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb of asparagus, bottoms trimmed
• 1 (14.5 oz) can of whole artichoke hearts, juices strained in a bowl (save them), cut in half lengthwise
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 pint container of grape/plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced and separated (4 cloves and 1 clove)
• 1 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, and a little extra for garnish
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 box angel hair pasta
• 2 tsp of dried basil, or Italian seasoning
• Salt, pepper to taste
• 5 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare your asparagus by trimming off the bottoms. Lay the asparagus on a tinfoil lined baking sheet. Drizzle with about 1 tbsp of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover with another sheet of tinfoil. When oven is ready, bake the asparagus for approximately 15 minutes. When done, remove from the oven, and allow to cool until it is safe to handle. Cut the asparagus into about 1 inch long pieces, re-cover with foil and set aside.
2. In a large and deep skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil (or enough to just coat the bottom of the pan) and 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat. Once the pan is heated and the butter is starting to foam, add the onion. Sauté the onion for 3-5 minutes, or until they start to turn clear, stirring occasionally.
3. To the same pan, add 4 cloves of the minced garlic. Allow the garlic to become fragrant, stirring occasionally for about 1 minute. The onions should be clear, and starting to slightly brown at this point.
4. Add the tomatoes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow to cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat back down to low-medium and cover the pan. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened but are still slightly firm.
5. Remove the lid and add the prepared asparagus, artichokes and reserved artichoke juices to the pan, mix to incorporate.
6. Add the white wine, dried basil, salt and pepper. Mix everything around in the pan. Add 2 tbsp of butter to melt while reducing. Cover and allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes on a low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol has cooked off, and the sauce is reduced by about half.
7. In a separate pan, while the wine is reducing, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and allow to become fragrant, stirring for about 1 minute. Add the shrimp to the pan. Cook until the shrimp for about 3 minutes, or until it is just starting to turn pink and slightly opaque. The shrimp will continue to continue to cook in the liquid with the vegetables.
8. Add the shrimp and all the juices from the pan to the pan with the vegetables and simmering wine, and stir.
9. Add the parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate the cheese. Allow to simmer on low while you cook your pasta.
10. Add your pasta to salted boiling water and cook according to the al dente instructions on the box.
11. When pasta is finished cooking, strain and return to the pot. Remove your vegetable/shrimp mix from the heat. The shrimp should be fully opaque at this point, if not, continue to simmer until they are. Add the vegetable/shrimp mix with all the juices to the pasta pot and mix to incorporate.
12. Serve, topped with freshly grated parmesan and parsley. Enjoy!

Notes:

• Don’t have yellow onion? White onion is also suitable. I just prefer to use yellow onions in almost all recipes.
• When I say the shrimp are peeled and deveined, this includes removing the tails! If we’re talking aesthetics, the tail left on looks pretty good, and it’s perfectly acceptable in an appetizer where you’re holding the shrimp by the tail. With that being said, I despise nothing more than having the tails left on the shrimp in recipes where the shrimp is mixed into something (i.e., a pasta dish). If you serve me pasta with shrimp and the tails are still on, we aren’t friends anymore!
• Any dry white wine will work well in this dish, but I always use pinot grigio.
• When baking the asparagus, it is important to keep in mind that it will continue to cook outside of the oven. For this reason, I recommend cooking for 15 minutes. If you want softer asparagus, cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
• Did you allow the wine to reduce for too long, and now you don’t have enough left? It’s okay! Just add more wine to the pan and allow to reduce again.
• The pasta is cooked “al dente” because it is going to absorb some juices from the wine reduction and you don’t want to end up with mushy pasta.

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