Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

Shrimp is something that both Matheus and my husband really like. I talk about having shrimp for a meal and they are as happy as can be!
And it was certainly not different with this dish. As I mentioned the above sea protein they could not wait for lunch, and were not even worried about what kind of dish I was going to make.
Luckily, Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta was a hit and lunch was an absolute success!
First you make a simple and easy tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs: parsley and dill. Then shrimp and feta cheese are added and the dish goes to the oven for a few minutes more. And that's it!
So easy and soooo flavorful! I enjoyed this so much that I could not believe how good it was!
I like shrimp, but I am not a big fan of canned tomatoes. I love tomatoes, the fresh ones, during summertime, when they are at their peak of goodness. Maybe it is just me, but I find canned tomatoes to be extremely acidic and... well, I think they taste like, hum... the can.
Sorry, I know, canned tomatoes are a staple and a life saver during winter months, I agree, but it might be just me, so just ignore my canned tomato rant and let's move forward, shall we?!
Anyways, my surprise with this dish was exactly the tasty sauce. The dill and parsley paired so well with the shrimp and tomatoes flavors that I could not stop raving about it, really, really good!
The cheese added just the right amount of saltiness, nicely complementing the flavors of everything else. The canned tomatoes turned out into a sauce that was not bad at all!
We all gave thumbs up for this dish here at our home, pretty easy, delicious and good for you, just like all the other recipes that came from Ellie's book! Yumm!!
Ana

Ps: I am sorry about the picture, I should have taken a better one... actually, I was supposed to plate and take another picture, but we were all so excited to eat that I ended up forgetting to do it, just to find the camera sitting on the counter ready to click... oh man!

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta
(Recipe adapted from Ellie Krieger's cookbook The Food You Crave)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ cups diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 (14,5oz) cans diced tomatoes, with their juices (I added 1 ½ can and it was enough sauce for us, too much more and it would have been tomato soup with shrimp swimming in it, so use your judgment on this one!)
¼ cup minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 ¼ pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or more to taste
2/3 cups crumbled feta cheese (3 ounces) (I didn't measure mine, but I guess I used less than this amount)

Preheat oven to 425F.
Sautee onion and garlic in the olive until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 5 minutes, until tomato juices thicken a little.
Remove from heat, add parsley, dill, and shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the feta cheese and bake until shrimp is cooked and cheese melts, about 12 minutes.
Serves 4.

Hi all!!

I am still here, yes! And I missed writing to this blog a whole lot, believe me.
Not that I haven't cooked or taken pictures lately, the thing was that Matheus started Kindergarten and things changed a bit.
Actually, for me the change was huge... he now stays in school for a long period and we lost our lunch time together (lunch still is the main meal at our house). And since he is very adventurous and loves my cooking I haven't had much motivation or inspiration to cook just for myself. It is pretty lonely while he is at school, and I do miss him a lot during the day.
The good thing is that he is pretty happy with school and comes home relatively early (2:30pm), so we still get a good part of the afternoon together to play, talk, snack and think about next day's lunch! :o)
Maybe it is supposed to be like this, as it comes a time when we need to "let them go" and face the world, but it is not easy, and I was certainly not prepared to be this soon...
All this, plus, I am looking for a job to get myself busy when Matheus is at school and it has not been easy to find something I truly like to do during the hours I am available. I got an opportunity which ended up not being a great one, and that sort of made me feel a little more frustrated.
But hey, life is here and now, and I will keep trying, in search of a job suited for myself. Eventually it will happen; meanwhile I need to cheer up and one of my favorite things to do is cooking, so here I go, into the kitchen again!!

I have many recipes I want to post, and there are some great ones that I have tried lately and really enjoyed. Today I am posting a very simple pasta recipe that I got from last month's Cooking Light magazine. It has one of Matheus and the Husband favorite ingredients, shrimp, and it was super fresh on a hot day!
The cooking is basically the pasta and the shrimp, which by the way was great, the little marinade with cirtus zest make them stand out and awesome just by themselves (I will definitely be making the shrimp like this again! And I think it would even be a good marinade to try on tofu... which I really like!).
Don't let the long list of ingredients shy you from making this, as most of it are basic staples you all must have around the house.
Fresh and tasty, a very nice dish for the last few hot summer days!
Enjoy!
Ana (who promises to not abandon the blog again!!!)

Garden Shrimp Pasta
(Adapted from Cooking Light, August 2007)
Serves 6 ( I made half recipe)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 pounds medium peeled and deveined shrimp
8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
5 cups chopped seeded tomato (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh mint
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil and next 6 ingredients (through shrimp) in a large bowl; toss well. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp mixture to pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done. Remove from heat; set aside.
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Place pasta in a large bowl; add tomato, basil, and mint.
Combine red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, sugar, and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper) in a small bowl. Pour over pasta mixture, and toss to coat. Place about 1 3/4 cups pasta mixture on each of 6 plates. Top each serving with about 3 ounces shrimp mixture and 2 tablespoons cheese.


Oh and although not very inspired to cook for me, I have been having fun with Matheu's lunchbox! :o)

Tortilla Roll Ups (his favorite so far!)








Broccoli and Cheese Calzone
Mixed Crackers, cheese, fruits and veggies!

Penne Al Forno

The recipe I am posting today is a very nice one, with restaurant flavors! Well, and it should be, because I got the recipe from our local newspaper, and it actually came from a local restaurant, which coming to think about it, it may even be a chain, it is called Biaggi’s.
We went to this restaurant twice already and, coincidentally, my husband had this very same dish. He liked it a lot and, fortunately enough, the recipe was featured in a section of the newspaper where people ask for recipe of dishes they have had at restaurant and eatery places around the town.
The husband was really happy to see the recipe; he even clipped it out and saved it for us to try on the weekend. So, under his commandment, I prepared it for our Sunday’s Pasta Lunch!
The original recipe actually called for ziti, but I used penne pasta, which was what I had on hand.
The dish is full of flavors, imparted mainly from the prosciutto that is initially sautéed and the white wine later added to the sauce. It is a rich and creamy, deliciously tasty sauce that I believe most people would enjoy!
I actually would have liked it more without the prosciutto in it, as it is not my favorite flavor, but the sauce would certainly suffer from the lack of it, as it does give some nice sort of “smoky” undertone to the whole dish.
I made half recipe and used half-half instead of the cream asked for in the recipe, just because that was what I had on hand. To be quite true, I don’t think the sauce was less good because of it… and it was probably a nice change for our hips!
The chicken and shrimp are very delicious together with the sauce. This is not your everyday pasta; it is more of a special dish, to be made on weekends and even when you might have company around, but certainly one that is worth trying at least once!
Hope you all enjoy too!
Ana

Note: I just want to say that I am sorry for the picture being presented inside the pan… I should actually have baked it in a casserole-type dish, but just for the sake of my “dishwasher husband”, I decided to bake it in the same pan I made it and save my loved one a few minutes in the sink.
And as it was done everyone was so eager to try the dish that I ended up not plating it nicely enough for a decent picture… Hope you still enjoy it as it was!

Penne Al Forno
(adapted from the News and Observer newspaper)

1 pound penne pasta
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup chopped onion
4 ounces diced prosciutto
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
8 ounces shrimp
½ cup white wine
3 cups heavy cream (I used half-half)
2 ounces (1/2 cup) Parmesan cheese, grated
6 tablespoons chopped scallions (green onions)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain and reserve.
In a pan melt butter, add onions and prosciutto and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and chicken, sauté for 3 minutes. Add shrimp and continue to cook for 3 minutes more.
Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, 3 minutes. Add cream and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir in the Parmesan and scallions, season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the cooked pasta and simmer for 3 minutes. Pour pasta into prepared dish, top with mozzarella and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. (I baked 10 minutes and them put it under the broiler for 2 more minutes to brown the top!)

Shrimp and Orzo Pasta

This was another dish I tried for our Sunday’s Pasta that was a success at our home!
My husband said he would like to eat some sort of shrimp dish last weekend. And since he usually grills meat on Saturdays, I decided to make a shrimp pasta dish for our Sunday lunch. Both the husband and Matheus really like shrimp; it is amazing how many of these little sea creatures those two are able to gobble up in one sitting. Needless to say they both enjoyed this dish!
It was simple to make and very tasty, which is a huge bonus for me! I actually didn’t have Romano cheese, so I used Parmesan, and it worked quite well. Although I guess the saltier Romano would be even better here. The only thing is I didn’t measure my basil and I believe I ended up using less than I should, so next time I will pay more attention to that.
I omitted the crushed red pepper and added about ½ cup of white wine to my tomato mixture, letting it reduce a bit (cooked a little longer than the recipe stated, so it wouldn’t be watery at the end). I like the taste of white wine with shrimp sauces; I think it adds a lot of flavor to it.
Anyways, it was a really good and simple dish. If you like shrimp, odds are you might enjoy this one too!
Ana

Shrimp and Orzo with Cherry Tomatoes and Romano Cheese
(Adapted from Cooking Light – April/05)

1 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.
While pasta cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper evenly over shrimp. Add shrimp to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, and cook 3 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften, stirring occasionally. Stir in pasta and shrimp; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, cheese, and basil.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)