Shrimp Scampi Verde

First of all, Happy Birthday to Bill!

Tonight's delicious feast is from Rachael Ray's Just In Time cookbook...a personal gift to me, from her, you might say. Ha. It is actually listed under her new category of 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) minute meals. Woohoo!

This was really yummy. And very green!

INGREDIENTS:

-2 (12 oz) packages of linguine

-1/2 cup chicken stock

-1 cup fresh basil leaves, loosely packed (about 20 leaves)

-1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, packed (3 handfuls)

-15 to 20 chives, coarsely chopped

-2 cups arugula leaves, packed (1 bunch stemmed and cleaned)

-Salt

-Pepper

-Zest and juice of 1 lemon

-6 tbsp EVOO

-1 1/2 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined

-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated

-1 tsp red pepper flakes

-1/2 cup dry white wine

-2 tbsp cold butter, cut in pieces

DIRECTIONS:

-Fill pot with water for the pasta. When it boils, salt it liberally. The pasta will take only a couple of minutes to cook al dente, so add it to the water when the shrimp are about half done (watch for your cue below).

-Place the stock, herbs, and arugula in the bowl of a food processor with salt and pepper to taste, lemon zest, and 2 tbsp of the EVOO. Grind into a coarse paste.

-Heat a deep skillet with the remaining 1/4 cup of EVOO, 4 times around the pan, over medium-high to high heat. When the oil ripples, add the shrimp and season liberally with salt and pepper. Toss and cook the shrimp for 3 minutes, then drop your linguine into the boiling water. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to the shrimp and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Deglaze the pan with the wine, then add the green sauce from the processor to the pan. Swirl in the butter and finish the shrimp and green sauce with the lemon juice.

-As soon as the pasta is al dente, use kitchen tongs to transfer it from the pot to the skillet with the shrimp and sauce. Toss to work the green sauce through the pasta and serve immediately.

COMMENTS:

-We loved this one! Craig said it is a definite repeater. Rachael's word for this dish is "herbaceous" and I agree. The taste of the basil/parsley/chives is awesome. Though the look on Craig's face when I was filling our grocery cart with all these fresh leafy things was even better.

-One little problem we had is that we do not have a food processor. So we used our blender instead. This was tough because the recipe does not call for that much liquid in the green sauce, as compared to the amount of herbs. So the blender had trouble breaking it down. We ended up adding extra chicken stock and EVOO to help. The sauce didn't turn out thin (like I was dreading) so it worked out.

-Rachael suggests serving with some crusty bread for mopping. Enjoy!