Directions
Welcome back, dear DILF, to the recipe for desperate housewares! Today we will prepare a simple dish as a concept but with a unique taste: pasta with shrimp sauce.
Mantis shrimp are fantastic crustaceans, excellent eaten raw and reinterpreted as a tomato sauce. They have a delicate and sweet taste, so we’ll balance the dressing with a good dose of garlic.
A drop of dark rum helps amplify the shrimp’s delicacy, but time is the essential ingredient.
You will have to cook the shrimp sauce for at least 1 hour and 30 minutes, and when it is cooked, collect the pulp from the shells.
Of course, with cooking, the shrimp pulp slips into the tomato, but then you have to scrape away up to the last gram of precious and tasty pulp.
The final touch is the French-style pressing of the shells. We are not at the San Domenico restaurant in Imola, where they use a bell press to squeeze every last drop from the pigeon bones, so a simple potato masher is fine.
Ok, put on the apron, and prepare a small, great first course!
Ingredients and doses for making pasta with shrimp sauce
6 servings
- 550 grams of pasta or gnocchi
- 700 ml of tomato sauce
- 10 grams of salt and pepper
- 4 shallots
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 2 kg of mantis shrimps
- 30 grams of extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cl of dark rum
- 1 sprig of fresh oregano
How to prepare pasta with shrimp sauce
Chop the garlic and shallots and fry gently for 15 minutes in a thick-bottomed pan.
Wash the mantis shrimp and cut off the head and then the tail. Cut the body into 4 parts.
Throw the shrimp in the pot, stir, cook for 5 minutes, then blend with the rum.
Let the rum evaporate, and crush the shrimp well with a wooden spoon.
Add the tomato, season with salt and pepper, add the fresh oregano, cover the lid, and cook for 2 hours. Remove the oregano after 30 minutes.
Now and then, take a look, stir, and crush the shells of the mantis shrimp.
After two hours, turn off and extract the mantis shrimp from the sauce. With a spoon, scrape off all the pulp, and put all the remains in a bowl.
Take a potato masher and press all the shells, recovering all the precious liquid of the shrimp in the bowl.
Filter and add to the tomato sauce with all the shrimp pulp that you have recovered.
That said, it seems like a no-brainer, and indeed it is. It is a straightforward recipe but very laborious. You are warned. Wear gloves, as shrimp are prickly to handle if you have delicate hands.
Ok, you made one of the most delicious fish sauces you can find in the Italian tradition. Congratulations.
Now cook the pasta, drain it al dente and finish cooking in the shrimp sauce, adding a little cooking water.
A sprinkling of pepper and the dish is ready!
If you have the desire and time, gnocchi are the most suitable pasta shape, pure poetry.
Which wine to pair with pasta with mantis shrimp sauce?
A savory Sicilian white like Catarratto or a Trentodoc of rock and silk like Monfort Riserva Brut.
If you want to combine a cocktail, the multifaceted taste of the Manhattan is ideal.
