The First Sauce

I have to say that tonight I made one of the most delicious things I have ever cooked. ADG's favorite thing is seafood pasta and although I don't eat the seafood, how could I keep denying him his favorite thing? This was a new experience because though our kitchen is not kosher, which is clearly very convenient (cheaper meat, 1 set of dishes) I really had not cooked any non-kosher food before besides the mixing of milk and meat. I found a recipe for Shrimp Fra Diavolo in a new cookbook my mom gave me: Cook This, Not That by the authors of Eat This, Not That--great book. This cookbook offers lighter versions of restaurant favorites (Alli, we must try their version of The Cheesecake Factory's Mac&Cheese). In this case, the recipe is a twist of a favorite shrimp pasta dish at the Olive Garden boasting half the calories, half the sodium and 1/5 the fat.

I had never made my own sauce before so this was a lot of fun. The recipe calls to first saute the shrimp and remove from heat. Then saute 1 chopped onion, 2 fresh garlic cloves minced (I made it 3), 2 tsp red pepper flakes and some oregano. Once the onions were soft, I added a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with basil and a cup of white wine. I allowed the sauce to simmer for about 20 minutes while I stirred. Meanwhile I was cooking up spaghetti, homemade caesar salad, and fresh garlic bread--I minced garlic and mixed it with some butter, and then spread between each slice of the bread loaf. I wrapped the loaf in tin foil and baked for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Once it was all ready, I folded the shrimp into the sauce and tossed with the spaghetti. With a bit of parsley, we were ready to go. The sauce definitely had a nice heat to it, but it gave what is for me a usually boring marinara flavor some kick. The onions and garlic in the sauce was to die. Ever since I found that Goldstein Ristorante ad in the Cooking Light magazine, I have been dying to bring some Italian into 415 and we sure did it up tonight. Plus, you know its a hit when your roomie packs it in his lunch for tomorrow.