Tantalizing Thursday

Welcome back to Food Day! Today's recipe I found in a newspaper magazine called American Profile a few months ago. In keeping with our lighter, healthier, yet delicious fare, I've chosen to pass on a another recipe for pasta as my family (minus the four year old) loves it in nearly every version! The recipe was sent in by a woman named Vina Lewis from Fortuna, California who developed her own, lighter version of shrimp fettuccine Alfredo by omitting heavy cream and flour. I threw this together one night when I was scouring the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer for dinner. I always keep dried pasta on my shelves, frozen shrimp in my freezer (I buy it on sale and stockpile), and some key fresh ingredients in the frig. I hope you enjoy as much as my family did; even the four year old ate his whole serving!

Quick Shrimp with Pasta

Vina Lewis

8 oz. uncooked linguine or fettuccine (or pasta of your choice) I used whole grain Rotini
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 pound raw medium shrimp, peeled and deveined - I used frozen cooked and peeled shrimp
2 to 4 garlic cloves, minced - I take help from the store and use packaged minced garlic
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream - I use store brand; reduced-fat is best, fat free is not the same consistency
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup (2 oz.) grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1 Tbs. sliced green onions - I omitted this as my family does not like them

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

2. Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter is melted, add shrimp and cook until opaque in the center, about 4 minutes, stirring frequently (using pre-cooked thawed frozen shrimp, reduce cooking time by about half, making sure shrimp is heated through, but not overcooked).

3. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in sour cream, salt and pepper until well blended. Remove pan from the heat and add cheese; mix gently.

4. Serve over pasta with additional cheese. Sprinkle green onions on top.

Serves 5.

Tips From The Test Kitchen:  Serve immediately after stirring in the sour cream and cheese so that the sauce does not separate.

Tips From Chief 187:  I add broccoli florets in the last 3 minutes of cooking the pasta in the same water so when the pasta is done, so is my vegetable. This method uses one less dish to clean, insures my family gets more vitamins/fiber in their meal, and makes the dish more colorful! I doubled the recipe so it would serve my family for dinner, but also provide leftovers for lunch (we had a good 4 servings left for lunches!).

This truly was a rich, creamy, cheesy, and satisfying meal. The sauce tasted sinfully good, but not as heavy as traditional Alfredo. By adding whole grain pasta, broccoli, and a tossed salad the meal was rather healthy! Of course, I also served garlic Texas Toast as well. The fact that my entire family (baby girl as well) enjoyed this meal means it will be put into the rotation. If you try it, let me know if you enjoyed and if you did any changing to the recipe like I do.

Please join me tomorrow for another Friday Music Blog. Looking forward to your reactions to this recipe and to see if we get any new ones in the comments section. Have a great day and thank you for joining me.