On the menu tonight, Lemon Water Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp!
This dish was inspired from watching a show about master pasta makers in Italy. Michelin star chef Peppe Guida, showed a really simple dish that he wanted to impart as much lemon as he could in to the recipe. One of the ways he got the dish so lemony was to add lemon juice to the water. Brilliant! It looked so good, I wanted to try to make it. There aren’t a lot of ingredients and none of them are hard to find, at least the way I made it. Chef Guida’s recipe included the leaves from the lemon tree… those may be pretty hard to find. 🙂
The key to making this is have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you get started. Once you get started cooking, the dish comes together pretty quickly.
Mrs LOVES lemony food, so I couldn’t wait to get her feedback on the finished product. I have never used so much lemon in any dish I’ve made. She took one bite and LOVED it! When I tasted it, my reaction was the same. I hope that you’ll try my version of Lemon Water Spaghetti with Shrimp.
Lemon Water Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp
Lemon Water Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 lb Angel Hair Pasta
- 10 - 16oz peeled, de-veined shrimp (I took the tails off too)
- 3 Lemons, zested and juiced
- 1/2 shallot, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (you could use dry, but you'll be happier with fresh)
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 3-4 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 1/2 - 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Prep all your ingredients first!
Wash your lemons, zest them, then juice them (Reserve lemon halves for the pasta water)
Bring a pot of water to a boil
While the water is warming up, pre-heat a large pan over med-high
Add the olive oil to the pan
Add the butter and shallots to the pan, cook until translucent (if using red pepper flakes, add that too)
Once the water comes to a boil, add two or three lemon halves along with a generous amount of salt and half of the lemon juice along with the pasta
Add the wine to the pan, cook to reduce by about half
Add the shrimp to the pan (make sure the shrimp are laying on their side and none are overlapping each other), season with salt and pepper. Cook about three minutes
Reserve about a cup of the pasta water, then drain the spaghetti once it is al dente
Add the pasta to the pan along with the grated Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, and half of the chopped parsley. Stir to combine
Cut the heat and add the minced garlic along with some of the reserved pasta water. Stir to combine
Serve and garnish the plates with more of the chopped parsley
Notes
You could also add basil to the dish. Scallops would be a delicious variation instead of shrimp.