Creamy Chipotle Shrimp Pasta!

A happy Mother's day to all the moms and moms to be! Hope you all had a wonderful time with your loved ones this weekend!

How did I celebrate with my mom? With what I do best of course, food! Nothing like a home cooked meal where she doesn't have to lift a finger... well okay, she kind of did but that's because my family is composed of picky eaters... if its not Asian, they glaze on it... so even though my dish was good... because it wasn't the usual, it didn't fill them. The usual is boring and I refuse to be boring and mom being the mom, lifted the finger to cook some side things for the rest of the family. Unlike everyone else, she eats just about anything. Probably where I got that from, thank goodness! I would be so miserable if I was a picky eater...there's no logic in that statement because if I were one, I wouldn't know the difference but from my current perspective, I'd hate to be a picky eater. I have my very strong opinion about picky eaters....but since some of my friends are picky eaters, I will refrain from those comments. Bottom line, at least try before giving the food the death sentence, you can't judge a book by its cover and you can't judge food by its looks (or people for that matter).

So aside from food what else did my mom get from me? Cash. After years of trying to find the "right" gift for birthdays and holidays, it turns out, she's better at finding herself the right gift. She may not be a picky eater but she is definitely a picky gift receiver (is that even a word??). She notes she likes something, so you think you're solid if you bought it, wrong. I've returned so many things she's mentioned she "liked" and now I've finally realized it saves us both time to just let her pick out her gift at her own time. Money is best form of gift giving. Honestly, I'd prefer money over presents, though its always a nice surprise to receive presents, I'm not picky about things like that but money is always a safe bet. Some people get insulted when given money because that supposedly shows how little the other person knows them... but hey they might not know what kind of things a person likes but doesn't mean they don't know the person. Just because someone can't figure out what shoe and shoe size you are means nothing. They might be that same person to shows up at your door with a hot cup of soup when your sick or a funny movie when you're down. Gift giving is relative, its lifelong gestures that matter. 

I'm one of those people that don't really care for days like valentines or anniversaries, etc. Those ONE day celebrations. Sure, lets do something nice but my version of nice isn't a fancy dinner party, it can be two people hanging out in each others' company. Why do we need that ONE day to be super nice to each other... what about the rest of the year!? To me it'll be even more special if someone picked a random day out of the calendar to be extra special just because. That to me shows more thought and care. Who doesn't know its Valentine's Day or whatnot....its only marked on every calendar and even for those of us who don't care...a small part of us do to some degree...even a little bit, but now if it was a random day and you have no idea, now that's special and a surprise!

I'm getting further and further away from the topic at hand... back to food and back to mother's day. In efforts to celebrate, I decided to bare the cooking duties for dinner so I made a relatively safe dish that the entire family can enjoy (my picky family that is) and it came out pretty well. Creamy tomato based pasta sauce with a touch of chipotle heat and tender shrimps to balance everything out. Not my best work in photos but hungry family is not a patient family. I snapped a few quick ones and then it was like feeding piranhas! 

Printable Version Here

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• Approx 28 shrimps, peeled
• 1 tbsp flour (optional)
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
• Olive oil
• Garlic salt
• Ground black pepper
• 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Approx 14oz pasta of choice (angel hair recommended)
• 1 tsp garlic, chopped or minced
• 5 -6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 chipotle pepper, cut into small pieces/smashed
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 shallot, diced
• 2-3 bunches of green onion
• ½ to 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ to 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Procedures:

1. Cook pasta via package instructions, drain, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and seasoning, and set aside.
2. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a large skillet. Cook shrimp over medium-high heat searing both sides. Flavor as needed with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Remove from heat when it’s about 80% cooked and set aside.
3. Heat some olive oil in a sauce pan. Add garlic, onions, shallots, chipotle pepper, and tomatoes and cook for approximately 5 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender. Stir in flour, wine, sugar, and cream and bring to a boil, reduce heat and continue for another 5 more minutes. Complete by stirring in parmesan cheese.
4. Coat the cooked and drained pasta with ½ the amount of sauce, then top with shrimp and remaining sauce. Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese if needed.