Posts from the ‘Food Stories’ Category

Tim vs Shrimp fra Diavolo

Valentine’s Day 2016.

I was working on a project, so, Tim decided he’d make dinner.

He opened up his ‘The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook’ (which was a present from our daughter and her fiance’ on Christmas 2014) and started to flip through it’s vast array of recipes.

Our daughter LOVES to cook – anything and everything – from Grandma’s old recipes to haute cuisine.  She knows that Tim likes to dabble in trying new recipes also, so it was the perfect gift.

His choice for last night was the Shrimp fra Diavalo.  I won’t share their recipe, but I will share his version…it was minus a few ingredients, a substitute of another, and a little less of another.

With that said, I HIGHLY recommend you get the cookbook and try their recipe.  You can find it on Amazon here:  The COMPLETE AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN TV SHOW COOKBOOK 2001/2014

Here is Tim’s version:

Shrimp fra Diavolo

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

Table salt

1 pound linquine or spaghetti

1 pound large shrimp (31 to 40 per pound), peeled and deveined

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup minced garlic

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup red wine

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

1. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot.  Add 1 tbsp salt and the pasta to the boiling water and cook, stirring often, until al dente.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water then drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
2. Meanwhile, toss the shrimp with 2 tbsp of the oil, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, and 3/4 tsp salt.  Heat a 12 inch skillet over high heat.  Add the shrimp to the skillet in a single layer and cook, without stirring, until the bottoms of the shrimp turn spotty brown, about 30 seconds.  Flip the shrimp to brown the other side.  Transfer the shrimp to a medium bowl.
3. Add 3 tbsp more oil and 3 tbsp of the garlic to the cooled skillet and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the garlic becomes straw colored.  Add 3/4 tsp salt, the tomatoes, wine and sugar, increase the heat to medium-high, and simmer until thickened, about 8 minutes.
4. Stir the shrimp with accumulated juices, the remaining 1 tbsp garlic, and the parsley into the tomato sauce.  Simmer until the shrimp have heated through, about 1 minute.  Turn off the heat, stir in the remaining 1 tbsp  oil.  Add 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce (no shrimp) to the pasta; toss to coat and adjust the consistency of the sauce with the reserved pasta cooking water as needed.  Mix the pasta and tomato sauce and serve with fresh grated Parmesan Cheese.  (Of course we add rolls to the dinner…what’s a good bowl of pasta without a fresh, warm roll? 🙂 )

As you can tell by the picture, we ate dinner casually in the living room last night.  (What you see beyond my feet is my latest project. Stay tuned for my next blog!)

Dinner was soooooo good!

Besides the fact that Tim did such an amazing job making this recipe, doesn’t everything taste better when someone else makes dinner?

😉

I hope you enjoyed Valentine’s Day as much as I did!

Patty O

ps…Maybe next time we’ll have everything to make the original version!