***WITH PASTA, SERVES TWO***
- 1/2 lb (225 g) of dried pasta (I like linguine)
- 1/2 lb (225 g) of shrimp
- 1/2 (120 ml) cup of white wine
- 1/2 head of garlic
- celery leaves
- lemon
- crushed red pepper flakes
- parmesan or pecorino cheese
- butter
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- Get a pot of salted water boiling for the pasta.
- Make sure your shrimp are thawed, peeled and deveined, and blot them dry with a paper towel.
- Peel and chop the garlic, and chop up a roughly equivalent pile of celery leaves.
- Heat a large pan on medium-high, and coat the bottom with olive oil. When hot, drop in the shrimp, taking care to keep them all in one layer, flat against the pan.
- Now is usually a good time to start the pasta cooking, or you could wait until after the shrimp are done. Shrimp take 2-5 minutes to cook, depending on size, and you want to cook them most of the way on the first side so that it can brown.
- When the shrimp seem mostly opaque, scrape them off the pan with a wooden spoon, and stir them around until they’re fully opaque.
- Remove the shrimp to a plate and quickly put in the garlic. You might need to turn down the heat if it looks like things are going to burn.
- Fry the garlic until it’s just starting to turn golden, then deglaze with the white wine, scraping the pan to dissolve the fond. Squeeze in some lemon juice — anywhere from a few drops to half a lemon, depending on how much you like lemon.
- Reduce the liquid until almost dry, then remove from the heat.
- When the bubbling has mostly ceased, melt in 4 tablespoons (60 g) of cold butter, mixing constantly to form an emulsion with the reduced wine. (To ensure the sauce won’t break when the hot pasta hits it, stir in a pinch of xanthan gum if you have it.)
- When the pasta is cooked, mostly drain it, but try to keep about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of the cooking water. Put the pasta and the water into the pan with the sauce, and stir to combine everything.
- Stir in the shrimp and the celery leaves, and chili flakes, pepper and salt to taste — though if you used salted butter, you probably won’t need any additional salt.
- Serve and top with grated cheese.
