Craving Italian, that’s what I’ve got, I’m making shrimp scampi with artichokes, a simple salad and a
hunk of crusty bread. It is real food that satisfies completely. Start here just putting a little heat in my
pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, heart healthy oil and this is the thing, a typical scampi recipe starts
sometimes with a cup of butter for four people. It’s just not necessary, you get a wonderful creamy
sauce, delicious rich sauce without all the butter. To that, I’m going to add a couple of shallots here, you
need a quarter cup of shallots altogether and shallot has a fantastic oniony flavor, very rich oniony flavor
but without the bite of onion. I love to use shallots. Toss those into the oil. To that I’m going to add
some garlic and it really would not even be a scampi without garlic. That’s just going to cook for about 2
to 3 minutes with the shallots.
Be extra careful not to let the garlic burn because that makes it bitter. You just want all the sweet flavor
of the garlic to come through. Next up the shrimp. This is peeled raw shrimp, I’m just going to toss that
right in just patted it dry so it wouldn’t splatter in the oil. Stir that through and shrimp is a terrific source
of lean protein. Almost no fat, I’m going to add some artichokes and this is my special dish into scampi.
It’s not traditional in scampi and I have an 11 ounce package of artichokes which are frozen which I
defrosted under the sink. They are sometimes packaged with a little bit of acid to maintain their color
and rinsing them also takes away that acidity. Some wine, a third of a cup of white wine. I’m using Pino
Greco and some lemon and lemon and seafood, just the natural together for good reason. I’m just going
to let this simmer here for three to four minutes until the shrimp are all cooked through, it happens
really fast.
In the meantime, I’m going to whip up a simple salad. When I say salad, I’m talking about the simplest
salad ever. Salad presto. I call it that because you pretty much just open a bag of lettuce and you can
have salad instantaneously. Now for the most simple dressing ever. Starting with two tablespoons of
olive oil, real classic Italian dressing. Then the Italian people are really quite famous for knowing that
sometimes the simplest things are the best things. Some red wine vinegar, one tablespoon and this
vinegar has such a bright flavor. Then to up the Italian ante, a little more some dried basil, a couple of
pinches, some salt and pepper and that’s it. Simple delicious Italian style dressing. Drizzle it up over the
greens. Give it a little toss.
That shrimp scampi is smelling so good, I’m going to add a little bit of parsley to that, two tablespoons
and I use flat leaf parsley. I really like the flavor. It also has vitamin A and vitamin C so it adds nutrition
as well as color and taste. Sprinkle that in, this looks so good. Dinner is ready. What would an Italian
meal be without some crusty bread? I’m using whole grain Italian style crusty bread, you can get all the
antioxidants and still all that chewiness, all the antioxidants will sop up the juices from the shrimp and
there goes the scampi. Each person gets a nice heaping pile of shrimp. Salad, easily prepared. You see
what I mean about satisfaction guaranteed?
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