Fettuccine with Rock Shrimp and Peas: Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner

 

Hello there! Hope you all had a nice long Labor Day weekend and cooked yourselves up something nice. We made some fantastic food which we'll be blogging about shortly so you can try it out at home. Today, to get back into the swing of things, we've got a great recipe that you can make some night this week to have a really enjoyable evening.

I make every day enjoyable, but if you don't have me, this dish will do. 

This is one we got from the same book as our Tagliatelle with Shrimp, Corn, & Jalapeño recipe, which shouldn't surprise you since the recipes are quite similar. This one is just as quick and easy, but uses peas instead of corn, sage instead of jalpeño, and adds in some pancetta for some smoky flavor. We used rock shrimp, which are smaller and somewhat sweeter than regular shrimp, but if you can't find rock shrimp, that's fine.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

1/2 lb fettuccine or fresh tagliatelle
1/2 lb rock shrimp
2 - 4 oz pancetta
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp minced fresh sage
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 cup green peas
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Get everything ready to go before you get started since it will come together quickly. If you're using fresh peas, measure out the portion you want, if you're using frozen peas, thaw them in water or in the microwave before you get started.

Diced pancetta

Chop your pancetta into a coarse dice and slice your garlic. Rinse off your sage and mince it finally. Rinse off your shrimp with cold water, pat dry, and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Rock shrimp, seasoned with salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add in your fettuccine, start to cook it until 1 - 2 minutes shy of the package directions. It should be about 7 - 8 minutes depending on the brand, which is about all the time you'll need to make the sauce.

Sautéing the pancetta

Throw your pancetta into the sauté pan and cook it until the fat renders out and the pancetta is crispy. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel. Remove excess fat in the pan but leave 1 - 2 tbsp to cook the rest of your sauce.

Sautéing the rock shrimp, garlic, and crushed red pepper. 

Add in the garlic and cook for a minute and then add in the shrimp, bringing up the heat, and tossing continuously until the shrimp is cooked. It should only take a few minutes, as they're quite small. Add in a pince of crushed red pepper and a ladle of the pasta cooking water, simmer for a few minutes until some of the water reduces and a slight sauce has formed, then remove from heat.

Combining the fettuccine, sage, and pancetta with the shrimp sauce

Once the pasta has cooked, remove it from the pot of water using tongs and place it directly into the sauté pan. Add in your sage, pancetta, and peas, and toss over high heat, adding more of the pasta water if necessary to get everything nicely coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste if necessary, and serve!

The Result
Given that this dish takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish and results in such a complexity of flavors while remaining relatively healthy, this is a real keeper. We had to use frozen peas so it wasn't quite as wonderful as fresh sweet peas would have been, but the smokiness from the pancetta and the sweetness of the rock shrimp were a really nice pairing.

Overall though, we really just love shrimp in pasta, and want to hear from you about some great recipes to try or ways to use shrimp! Let us know in the comments!