Here we are again. Meeting over a recipe. I’m behind a screen drooling over a dish I prepared some time ago between the past two weeks and five years.
Kidding!
I will be using, though, some recipes I shot in the past few year, and in love with, yet I never shared. But I will try to get this “blogger” thing going by shooting, editing, writing, AND publishing as soon as possible.
I don’t know how they do it.
Let me think of a scenario where I would get to do this perfectly.
I live on my own. Maybe with a flatmate or two. I have a good kitchen that is big enough to make a mess AND have the spirit to clean up afterwards (no one cooks and keeps the kitchen spotless like Brie Van De Camp). I have a space big enough to set up a table by a well-lit window that doesn’t get direct light. My props on shelves and my photography equipment ready to use. A desk would be helpful to sit and edit the photos of the day. A nice garden view would make me want to write (I am imagining this, so let me have it!). And that’s my job! One of them.
That’s probably the only thing I have from all this fantasy 😂.
The many jobs, and partially having food photography as one of them.
Now let’s get back to reality. I have missed writing so much. Putting my thoughts out and realizing them into somehow tangible letters makes things more real. Since December, I was inspired to write a few things, romanticize my feelings and thoughts into carefully arranged words and throw in some line breaks to form a vertical arrangement of text. It was a way to deal with the rush of thoughts circling inside my brain and the loads of emotions shifting in my heart and making me feel weird.
I let it out. I am letting it out. And here we are, you’re reading some of it here.
Let’s be clear. I will never be that polished blogger with the organized life with scheduled posts and dedicated time to look at his phone to reply to comments on his posts. I have to embrace what I am. I’m working on getting my mind wrapped around that idea and acquiring the belief that I should not compare myself to others. This post by How Sweet Eats came just in time as I was getting my stuff together to start publishing again.
I am me. I am growing and changing every day, and it is my duty to see how I am today and get myself together and love that.
It is not as easy as it sounds. And definitely listen to yourself, and SAY IT to yourself, when you’re saying it to others.
Now enough with self love talk and crappy emotional stuff.
LET’S GET TO THE IMPORTANT STUFF!
What’s more self love than a GOOD plate of GOOD PASTA!
Before you come for me about how authentic this recipe is, THIS IS NOT CLAIMING TO BE ONE.
It is my version of recipes I’ve tried before, then had my own version of it.
After making Pasta Carbonara, one too many times, following the authentic method in concept (but not necessarily in ingredients) by making the sauce with an egg, parmesan, and black pepper emulsified in pancetta fat and pasta water, I can never go back. It is a new world of sauces that include NO CREAM. Certainly lighter, and brighter in flavors.
This recipe follows the traditional method of making a sauce with emulsified fat and starchy pasta water then binding it all with grated parmesan. I added shrimps to feel less guilty about having a plate of nothing but carbs and fat. That’s called being-over-thirty ladies and gentlemen.
For more updates, follow me on
Serves 2 persons
Ingredients
- 6 jumbo shrimps, thawed if frozen (raw or cooked)
- 4-5 nests of tagliatelle
- 40g butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper
- juice and zest of 2 lemons, keep the lemon halves
- 2 tsp capers
- 1/4 cup white wine (more to drink 😉)
- 100g parmesan, grated
- Parsley, to garnish
Procedure
- Start by boiling water in a pot, and salt it with around two tablespoons of salt. Don’t worry, this will turn your pasta from bland to flavorful. Once the water boils, add the pasta and cook al dente, according to pack instructions. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the recipe
- This is very quick to prepare – quick to serve recipe. So put on your pan on the heat and pour a tablespoon of olive oil in there. Add the shrimps and let that cook or heat through if you’re using cooked shrimps.
- Once cooked/heated, add a squeeze of lemon, shake the pan and toss them together, then remove the shrimps and set aside.
- Add the butter and the rest of the olive oil on medium low heat. The olive oil keeps the butter from burning. Stir in the minced garlic and half the lemon zest and let that flavor the butter but don’t let it brown. Add in two lemon halves and let them heat up with the butter. You haven’t tasted anything until you try grilled lemons
- By this time, the pasta should be done Al Dente. Using a tong, fish out the pasta and throw it in the pan. Don’t worry about draining that. We need the salty water in.
- Stir the pasta with the butter, garlic, and lemon zest that are already in the pan. Add the wine and stir then add some of the pasta water in if it is too dry and keep stirring and let the mixture emulsify. THIS is your sauce
- Mix in the shrimps to warm them up
- Throw in half of the cheese and the capers and the lemon juice, to taste, and toss all together. Taste for salt, and season with lots of freshly ground black pepper
- Divide into two plates and top with rest of the cheese and lemon zest and parsley and serve immediately with a glass of good white wine
