Jeremy, Remember when I was asked to come in to work a few extra hours back when I was a cashier? Oh yeah, You had to endure a ton with what was going on at the time so, I whipped up dinner for you when you got out as a hot happy treat.
Her favorite dishes have shellfish and shrimp was readily available cooked and raw, and Italian just like her. (3/4, with some French) Well, after troving the internet for a while, I came across it, shrimp fra diavolo. It can pack a mighty punch of spice, but that can be mitigated by cutting down and swapping some of the peppers for herbs. (so it’s not sooooo devilish I suppose.)
The name “fra diavolo” comes from the Italian for “from the devil”. It is a type of red sauce used with seafood where you put in a bunch of capsacin (red pepper flakes, chili peppers, etc.). Capsacin is a killer on the taste-buds, to the point of not being able to taste flavor anymore. A mouth plagued with hot sauce is a painting only done in 1 tone of the same color.
For this reason, I decided not to add a ton of red pepper flakes opting for more of a traditional herbal red sauce – oregano, basil, parsley, etc. The herbs actually counteracted some of the capsacin, making it less spicy but not completely eliminating the spice all together. What’s life without a little zing?
I had no other choice but to use angel hair pasta underneath, playing off of the heaven vs hell motif. Thin noodles take much less time than thick ones. There’s an old nona’s tale about how to tell if it’s ready. But as fun as it may be to throw stuff at the walls, that isn’t a great indication of how it feels in your mouth. If you live with neat-freaks who don’t cook because they like a clean kitchen, it might get you in trouble. The only way to know how it tastes and the mouth-feel is just right is to simply taste it yourself after 8 minutes and test every minute if it’s not ready yet. Al-dente means “to the tooth” not to firm, but no squish either.
The recipe I used to prepare this was from Food Network and was remarkably easy. All you do is cook your shrimp in a pan with olive oil and spice par usual. Then (in the same pan) make your sauce pretty much like you would make any other red sauce. Since we don’t care much for wine, I cut their amount down to a quarter. This way, the wine can still contribute, but that kick is damped down too.
I was so delighted by the dinner and let’s just say, we put the leftovers in a very small container, and I got a lip-shaped sauce stain on your cheek.
Once we can go out again, I’m going to beg and plead you to make that with me. I’ll start now, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, pretty please?