Easy Delish Lemon Garlic Shrimp

I will happily admit it - I am a Pinterest addict.  I found this absolute fabulous shrimp recipe from Cinnamon Girl Recipes, while scrolling through looking for ideas to add to my Coastal Cooking board.  It was the luscious big shrimp that caught my eye!
(photo credit to Cinnamon Girl Recipes)

Step #1 - good Shrimp!  We are so lucky to be 1surrounded by local fish markets here in the Bay Area - so I made a fast trip down to our favorite fish market in Half Moon Bay to grab some prawns.

I used Cinnamon Girl's Recipe with a few twists - turned out DELISH!  Tom and I were oohing, and ahhing throughout our dinner - maybe it was the wonderful bottle of Pagemill 2010 Chardonnay...

Ingredients

•  1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested then half cut into thin slices and other half into wedges
• 3-4 fresh thyme springs, leaves removed
• sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper
• linguine pasta (I like fatter pasta with this kind of sauce)
• 2 Tablespoons butter - NOT margarine
• 1 pound fresh shrimp, medium-sized, de-veined with tails off
• 1-2 cups of broccoli
• 3/4 cup sliced red pepper
• 5 cloves of garlic minced  

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a glass 9 x 13 baking dish, combine olive oil, lemon zest and thyme. Olive oil should liberally cover the bottom of the pan, if it doesn't drizzle more in.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place in oven for 10-12 minutes, checking every few minutes - if it looks like it is getting too brown, remove and proceed to the next step.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta. Drain and toss with a pat of butter or olive oil.

3. Remove pan from oven, add butter and swirl to melt.  Add shrimp, broccoli, red peppers, garlic and the lemon slices.  Don't squeeze the lemon slices - just add to the shrimp roasting mixture.   Bake for 8-10 minutes or until prawns turn pink - check often, there is nothing worse than overdone prawns!  

4. Remove roasted lemon-garlic shrimp mixture from the oven and dump into the pasta.  Stir completely into the pasta, over low heat for just a few minutes with a few squeezes of fresh lemon and a dash more of olive oil.  

5.  Serve in your best pasta bowls with a really good french bread and a special white wine!  No need for a salad if you've roasted the veggies with the shrimp.

Voila' - super easy, and super yummy.    (P.S. These are my favorite pasta plates - vintage Vietri scooped up at a thrift shop for $5.00 each!)

In fact, this was so incredibly rich and delicious, we ate it all before I remembered to take any pictures for you.  oops....   

Today is our anniversary, and we will be heading into the city to have dinner at Scoma's, at Fisherman's Wharf.   Will bring my camera and see if I can capture any cool shots of San Francisco tonight.  Can't wait! I might even get out of my jeans and wear a dress for that cute boyfriend of mine....

Have a great Thursday everyone!  If you click on the link above "Current Newsletter" - there's a FREE shipping coupon code for President's Day weekend.

New 18" x 25" over sized nautical napkins on our site! 

Or these cute red-rock shrimp napkins would be cute to use too!  Also generously over sized, and eco-friendly.

Asking the Barefoot Contessa...

Ah... 2 hours on the plane from Seattle back to San Francisco, the perfect time by myself with no distractions to get caught up on my magazine addiction.  On the flight up to Seattle, I read the entire Sunset Magazine - it's now all marked up with fun things to do in the Bay Area, recipes to try, places to visit... more about that later!

Now on to House Beautiful, savoring each issue in its' entirety, turning the pages, marking up articles to share on my Facebook page...

 I have 3 issues to catch up on, starting with the July/August issue. I must be hungry  though, as I immediately turned to the "Ask the Barefoot Contessa" column!   Here's what I found, and what I made for dinner on Wednesday night; "Spaghetti with Shrimp and Broccoli"... easy, easy easy.  Never thought about roasting shrimp (prawns) but they sure turned out gorgeous, pink, juicy and NOT overdone.





You will need:

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 cups of broccoli florets 
• Good Olive Oil
• 1 pound shrimp (16-18 per pound) shrimp peeled and de-veined
• 1 pound good pasta - we used whole grain
• 8 large garlic cloves 
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

**Not on the Barefoot Contessa's list, but I also roasted red peppers and fresh cherry tomatoes from our deck garden

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, bring a large pot of water to boil with 2 tsps. of salt

2. Combine the broccoli, (and red pepper if you choose)  1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 tsp. of salt, 1/2 tsp. of pepper on a sheet pan , spread out and roast for 5 minutes.

3. Remove from oven, and then spread shrimp and tomatoes with the broccoli, return to oven and roast for another 8-10 minutes. (look how plump the shrimp/prawns are!)

4. Meanwhile cook the pasta in the pot of boiling salted water, according to the directions on the package. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water before draining the pasta.

5. Heat 1/3 cup olive oil over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the finished pasta. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until it begins to turn golden.  Add the red pepper flakes and cook for about 30 seconds more.  Carefully add the reserved pasta cooking water to the garlic and oil, then bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, add 1 tsp. of salt and simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid is reduced by about a third. 

        **Hint: we used 1/2 cup of white wine in place of 1/2 cup of the pasta water**

6. Add the drained pasta to the garlic oil and toss.  Take off the heat, add the cooked shrimp and broccoli, plus the parsley and Parmesan cheese.

7.  Voila"!   Serve with a nice white wine and some crusty fresh bread, and enjoy!  

Have a wonderful weekend, get outside and enjoy some nice fall weather.   I think we will be headed down to the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero in San Francisco for some farmer's market shopping - will send pics if we do!

We've had a very eventful week at Caron's Beach House - here's where we've been featured!

Completely Coastal - Caron's Beach House http://www.completely-coastal.com/2010/09/carons-beach-house.html

Sally Lee by The Sea: Window Shopping for Beach Fall Finds http://www.sallyleebythesea.com/2010/09/window-shopping-for-beachy-fall-finds.html

Coastal Creations and Designs: Everything Coastal Unplugged http://coastaldesign.blogspot.com/2010/09/everything-coastal-unplugged-interview.html

Thanks again for your support, your comments and for following!