Lemon Shrimp Pasta

This dish tosses shrimp, sugar snap peas,and orrechietto pasta with a lemony garlic sauce. First, I microwaved the sugar snap peas, defrosted some frozen ready-to-eat shrimp under running cold water, set them aside and put the pasta water on to boil. When the pasta is about ready, saute 5 cloves of garlic cut into small pieces and 3/4 of a thinly sliced lemon in olive oil until soft. Then add 1 TBS lemon oil, a splash of Madeira, some tarragon, 1 heaping TBS of creme fraiche, a shake of Mrs. Dash ( a salt free seasoning), stir and add shrimp. Cook for a few minutes and add peas until flavors are well melded ( 1-2 minutes). Toss in the pasta and serve. This recipe gives you ample servings for two in about 30 minutes.

Something different

I've been busy painting and haven't had time to write up any kitchen art..hope I haven't lost you. Here's an easy to prepare pasta dish with some unusual ingredients that turned out to be fabulous. Boil up some zucchetta pugliese pasta(they look like zuchinni-ends) or whatever pasta suits your fancy. While the pasta is cooking, dice four slices of Italian speck ( air dried bacon somewhat like prosciutto) and brown in olive oil with two cloves of diced garlic. Add one summer squash sliced on the diagonal, 1/2 sliced red pepper, a handful of walnuts, some thinly sliced radicchio ( aboout a half) and some herbs de Provence. Add a dash of Marsala and saute until tender. Then add 3 TBS crumbled goat cheese, a sprinkling of crumbled blue cheese and a touch of soy creamer to thin mixture. Simmer for a few minutes and then toss in pasta and serve. Serves two