Men Cook Too! – Shrimp, Tomato, and Basil Pasta

 One of my hobbies is cooking, now normally I try and go above and beyond in the kitchen, but it was recommended that I do a few recipes every now and then of easy to make recipes that the men can try at home. You can probably wow a few honeys just by whipping up these recipes, shouldn’t take you more than an hour. My thing is this, a lot of times men try and cook for women and they make easy mac or ramen, and maybe some chicken breast cutlets in the microwave, this series is going to show y’all how to basically do you dougie in the kitchen.

 

Here’s your ingredients, and I’ll give you some adlibs along the way:

Black granite countertops, get some.

• 1.5 pounds of medium-large shrimp (peeled, remove the tails (drop those shrimp in some running cold water for about 3 minutes to unthaw then take the tails off yourself)
• Oil (Here’s a little known secret, once olive oil is heated, it turns to vegetable/canola oil, none of it is healthier than the other, the only difference is taste, so bruh, use what you got.)
• 2 Garlic cloves (If you ain’t got cloves, just get some powder, or buy the pre-minced.)
• 1 Can of Diced Tomatoes w/ juice (Hunt’s Fire Roasted with Garlic is my favorite.)
• 1 Pint of Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, cut in halves. (These are the small tomatoes they put in salads, they are sweeter than your normal tomatoes.)
• 1/2 pound of linguine
• Fresh Basil (For this, I added spinach and bay leaves with the basil, I’ll explain later.)
• Sea Salt (Sea salt holds flavor better throughout the cooking, that’s a tip that will take you far)
• Fresh Ground Pepper
• Old Bay Seasoning
• A bottle of white wine
• A glass of Hennessy (I always like to cook with a glass of Henny, it passes the time in the kitchen so I don’t wander off into the living room and get on twitter.) 

I take after my father, when i'm cooking and it gets good to me, I start humming.

First things first, get you a nice teflon skillet and turn it on high heat, put some oil in it, not a lot, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Take your pepper grinder and cover the oil in pepper on the pan, once that oil gets to moving around like water, drop the shrimp in there and sautee. Go ahead and give the shrimp a healthy dose of salt and pepper, and an even more generous helping of Old Bay. I prefer to keep my pan in my hand while cooking that way if it gets too hot you can easily get it away from the fire, but also because you look like a G while doing it. Do this for about three minutes and sit the shrimp aside.

 

2. In that same skillet put some more oil, but wait this time, don’t spread the oil out, put the garlic in right away and this should look like a paste. Add your can of tomatoes and a cup of water, more water if you like a thinner sauce. Go ahead and add some bay leaves and spinach (I added this to the dish because bay leaves add flavor to everything, and spinach is a good veggie to add, people like it a lot and it adds color, color to a dish is important), push those under the sauce, then add some garlic powder and more pepper. Pepper doesn’t hurt ANYBODY, you can use as much as you want, just go crazy and see what happens. Once that comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a low boil (simmer). Let that rock out for about 15 minutes. Once done, remove from heat, add cherry tomatoes.

 

3. Get a large pot, put a healthy amount of salt in the pot with some water and begin to bring to a boil. If you want to make your noodles super tasty this is an easy trick; add some butter and oregano to the water. Once you get the pot to a boil, add your noodles. They should take about 8-9 minutes to cook. (The package says al dente .. I know what that means, but for all intents and purposes that mean cooked.) Drain the pasta. Put the pasta back in the pot. Add the sauce, then the shrimp and then toss/stir. Do another round of pepper and Old Bay. See here if you add sea salt then your pasta will be crunchy, so use the Old Bay. Serve immediately and garnish with basil.

"Don't you know, I ... sit around ... with my head hanging down, and I wonder... whooooo's been loving you ---"

 

A few things I didn’t mention.

 

1) I like to heat my plates so I’m not putting hot food on cold plates. I just put the oven on 170 and place the plates in there 3 minutes before serving.
2) The white wine is the best thing to pair with a seafood pasta dish, but pick what’s best for you.
3) Steps #2 and #3 should be done almost concurrently. I would start boiling my water with about 8 minutes left for my sauce.

 

Recipe serves 4. That’s enough for a date and then lunch the next day. Never eat too much when you cook, you have to clean and entertain, can’t do that on a full stomach.

Final product, with some grated parmesan cheese. Notice how the plate compliments the colors of the food and season.

Enjoy.