This is another one of Jacky’s recipes. He made this earlier in the month and it tasted sooo good I immediately asked him to write up the recipe for me.
Why haven’t I posted it until now? Because, earlier in the month, I was busy with life and then I was stressed as all hell. But now we’re getting a little more back to normal, and a little more back into the groove of things :)
Jacky is a great cook and often makes up really great recipes on the fly based on what we have in our fridge, then later forgets how he made them. That’s what these posts are for! So even if nobody tries them, we can at least still look at them to remind us how we made the food we liked haha.
The secret ingredient was bacon fat that we had in our fridge from when I fried up a load of American bacon. Mmmm… I’m guessing that’s what gave it its rich umami flavour. If you don’t have bacon fat, I’d recommend adding butter.
Please let us know if you end up trying it too!
Ingredients (serves 2)
- Angel hair pasta, 5 oz
- Shrimp, unshelled, 10-12x medium sized
- Yellow squash, 1x medium sized
- Onion, 1/8x (I cut a slice from a halved onion)
- Cherry tomatoes, 12-15 toes
- Garlic, 2 cloves, finely diced
- Basil, 1-2 leaves
- Salt and pepper
- Cornstarch
- Olive oil
- Bacon fat, 1 tsp (optional)
Steps
- Heat a few cups of water for the pasta. Season the pasta water with salt to taste (no oil needed).When the water is brought to a boil, dunk the pasta in and cook for 3-4 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Strain when al dente. Add olive oil as desired.
- Pat shrimp dry, season with salt and pepper.
- Halve the cherry tomatoes lengthwise. Set aside for later. If you haven’t diced the garlic yet, do so now.
- Cut yellow squash lengthwise, then into thin slanted rainbow-shaped slices (about 2-4 mm thick).
- Cut onion into slivers. Since I used a 0.5 mm round slice from the thickest part of an onion, literally just cut it into half.
- Sauté the yellow squash and the onion in olive oil on medium-high heat until onions are done and squash are limp and browned. Remove veggies from pan for later.
- Add ~2 tsp/shrimp of olive oil into the pan. Bread the shrimp liberally with cornstarch. Dust off the excess cornstarch and fry shrimp on medium-high heat for 1-2 mins on one side, then flip over and fry for another 1-2 mins (or until more-or-less cooked). Remove shrimp from pan onto paper towel to soak off excess oils.
- Add squash-onion mix back into the pan, along with the cherry tomatoes, diced garlic and pasta. Optionally, throw the bacon fat in too. Cook for 1-2 mins on medium heat. Season to taste.
- Plate the pasta and roughly chop the fresh basil leaves and sprinkle onto pasta. Add shrimp on top. Serve & enjoy!
Muchos love,
