Pasta with shrimp, cream, and tomato

I have a confession.

I think I'm about to start a love affair with pasta. Obviously, we've flirted before, many times, but while making my own pasta tonight I fell head over heels and I know I'm in for trouble. 

Making pasta has to be one of the most rewarding things you can do... to knead the dough, to run it through the machine over and over, until it's just the right thinness and then to just slice it up into any ol' shape you want... you feel like you suddenly have some amazing power, like with this power you might just be able to completely take over the world someday. Hey, you never know... pasta is a pretty powerful thing.

I haven't been able to contribute properly over at IHCC's lately, but this week I knew I wanted to make something that wasn't too difficult, but would be absolutely delicious. The theme this week, is "in the pink", and while I realize this pasta is not pink (not even close)- it's full of pink shrimp, although covered in tomato cream sauce, but I hope it still counts! 

I adapted Tessa's recipe for Penne with shrimp, cream, and tomato, by making homemade spaghetti, and also adding a few extra seasonings and asparagus. The tomato cream sauce with the shrimp is lovely, and shrimp in my case, is not one of my most favorite things, and yet I loved it. I think you could eat pretty much anything with this sauce and be happy. Of course you can use any kind of pasta you like, but the homemade pasta added a little something special to it... and I had so much fun making it. So did the dogs - they just knew something would have to fall with the mess I was making in the kitchen tonight... and they were right.

Homemade pasta with shrimp, cream, tomato, and asparagus

adapted from, Apples for Jam, by Tessa Kiros

3 Tbs butter 

1/2 can tomatoes with juice, pureed

Salt and pepper

1/2 tsp of dried basil

a generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes

2/3 package of penne - or fresh pasta (either homemade or store bought, either way, I would recommend it.)

2 tsp olive oil

1 1/4 pounds raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 cloves garlic, peeled and squashed

1 bunch of asparagus, chopped, and steamed

3 tbs heavy whipping cream

Melt half of the butter in a small pan and when it is sizzling, add the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, basil and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until it is thick.

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until Al dente. Meanwhile, in a large non stick pan, heat the oil and the rest of the butter and when it is sizzling, add the shrimp and garlic. Over the highest heat possible, cook the shrimp until they are quite bright pink and the undersides are golden and crusty in places. It is important that the heat is high and that you have a nonstick pan so that the shrimp fry quickly rather than boil in their own liquid. Turn them over and when they are cooked, sprinkle with salt. Drain the pasta, keeping a cupful of the cooking water (I added 1/2 cup to my sauce in the end.)

Add the tomato sauce to the shrimp and the steamed asparagus. Remove the squashed garlic cloves.  Slowly add the cream to the sauce, and heat until just bubbling. Add the pasta and toss well, adding the reserved pasta water if you need it to thin the sauce. Serve immediately with a grinding of fresh pepper.

And voila! Feed this to someone, and hope the pasta creeps up into their brain and takes over...  and for instance, they end up ignoring the fact they just saw a goat walk across the living room floor in a diaper, or a Pug reading a story book... or a Prairie dog stealing a banana from the kitchen. 

It might just work.