Munchie Monday: Lemony Roasted Shrimp Pasta

Last week I was looking for a recipe that was quick, but a little more involved than throwing together a frozen feast* from Trader Joe's (poor Mr. 3...since he proposed I haven't had enough energy to try out new recipes, so the frozen feast has been a reoccurring meal at my dinner table).  Harris Teeter had some Argentine pink shrimp on special and I had a lemon.  Those were my "inspiration ingredients."  After a quick Google search, I found a recipe from Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa).  Usually her recipes are much too involved for me...but I was intrigued by the idea of roasting shrimp (which I had never done before!).  Her recipe makes 6 servings, so I cut all the ingredients in half and I gave Mr. 3 a much larger portion (he's 6'2 and can afford the extra pasta carbs...I'm 5'3 and still have to find a wedding dress...)

Ingredients
1 lb shrimp (the Argentine shrimp are fairly large in size, so I just used a half a pound)
1/2 lb of angel hair pasta
Juice and zest of one lemon
1/8 cup plus 1/2 tbsp. of good olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter (I love Land O'Lakes)
Sea salt
Black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.   Start boiling water for pasta, add in some olive oil and salt the water.  Peel and devein the shrimp. Season with the 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on the shrimp. 

After the oven reaches 400 degrees, spray a cookie sheet with some nonstick spray and lay the shrimp down in a single layer across the pan.  Cook for 6-8 mins, making sure to check them so they don't over cook.

After water reaches a boil, throw the pasta in.  Angel hair cooks in about 3 mins, so make sure to watch your timing.

To make the sauce, melt butter on low heat.  Zest lemon and juice the lemon (you can put both the zest and the juice in the same container. Once butter has melted, throw in the lemon juice and zest, the 1/8 cup olive oil, and about 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and pepper.  Whisk together.

Drain the pasta and put in bowl.  Throw in the shrimp and toss all of it with the sauce.  This dinner should take you about 20 minutes from start to finish.  Serve with a side salad.  For variation next time, I might also throw in some mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. 

The roasted shrimp were soooooo good.  They came out perfectly cooked and tasted much richer than boiling them (could be the olive oil though, ha).  Mr. 3 LOVED this dish and now calls it one of his favorite meals.  He liked it so much he walked over to the kitchen and found some bread to soak up the left over sauce.  This recipe also makes a great date night meal if you want to make an Italian dish, but don't want the garlic breath to go with it!  Let me know what you think!

*A frozen feast is what I call it when I randomly throw together frozen veggies, a sauce, and some frozen (although dethawed) meat together.  Often it takes on an Asian form...i.e. orange chicken and veggies.  Bless you Trader Joe's for making it easier on us stressed out brides!