So Many Dishes

I’ve realized that most of the recipes I blog about are relatively easy recipes that are quick to put together. Occasionally I’ll include a more involved dish, but I tend to concentrate on weeknight meals that are tasty and healthy, where I don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen.

Even though I’m retired, I’m still pretty busy. And there are days when things come up, and I have even less time than I normally do to get dinner on the table.

Today was one of those days. Since my best friend Kathie moved away a few years ago, we’ve tried to FaceTime regularly. But we haven’t had a chance to talk much the past few months. So, when we got on a call this afternoon, we had a lot to talk about. When I got off the phone, I realized that I was going to have to hustle to make our regular dinner time.

Fortunately, the dish we had on the menu, shrimp and artichoke pasta, is pretty easy to put together. The main concern, since we had frozen shrimp, was to make sure the shrimp were thawed. We always use frozen shrimp; it’s one seafood whose quality isn’t affected by freezing. I’d thawed the shrimp, which were already peeled and deveined, earlier in the afternoon. (If they had needed peeling, that’s Ken’s job). I also sliced mushrooms and chopped garlic before my call.

The only shortcut that I took—and to be honest, it really wasn’t that much of a shortcut—was to use prepared pasta sauce. The original recipe calls for chopped fresh tomato, but a notation suggests substituting canned tomatoes or tomato sauce. I’ve made this recipe with fresh tomatoes and with canned, and it’s good either way. But I had half a jar of Rao’s tomato basil sauce in the fridge that I needed to use up, and thought, why not?

The result was a definite success. Ken said he preferred it this way. I didn’t add any additional seasoning other than sprinkling a bit of chopped fresh basil that I had on hand over the finished dish. Normally, I would serve this over spaghetti, but I decided to cook stumps of other pasta shapes to clean out the cabinet. The sauce clung nicely to the combination of rotini, elbows, and ditalini.

The original recipe is from the Taste of Home cookbook Mediterranean Made Easy. I’m not normally a fan of Taste of Home recipes, but the ones in this book trend lighter and healthier than others from this source. Many of the recipes in the book can only marginally be considered Mediterranean, but every one we’ve tried has been tasty. This is how I prepared it tonight.

Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta

• 10 ounces dried pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 12 ounces (1/2 24-ounce jar) prepared tomato-basil pasta sauce
• 1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil, to serve

Cook pasta according to package directions, and drain.

While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 4 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and have given up most of their liquid.

Add shrimp, sauce, and artichokes. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 5 minutes, until shrimp are just cooked through. Add olives and cook one minute more.

Serve shrimp and sauce over pasta, sprinkled with chopped basil. Makes 4 servings.

Happy Friday, and happy eating!