Not Your Lowest Calorie Shrimp Meal

4 servings of bacon-y and delicious shrimp and pasta with a spinach salad on the side.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 10   Cook Time: 20  

Ingredients

1 lb deveined shrimp (I took off the tails and used them to make sea food stock later)
1 piece of bacon per person (3 for my husband)
1 cup of spinach per person
pasta of your choice (I only needed a half a box for 4 servings, but if you want to stretch it to make more feel free)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 – 1 cup of wine (I used red but white would be even better. Something you would actually drink)
1 – 2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 – 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions

Bake off the bacon at 375 for 8-10 minutes, check it early, flip it over with your tongs and finish baking for 3-5 minutes. You can do it in a pan on the stove if you want to go that way too. Set the bacon aside to cool and pour the fat into your big skillet.

Start your pasta boiling. Turn on the heat under your bacon fat pan to med/med-low. While the pasta is cooking, roughly chop the bacon into big bits.

When the pasta has about 3 minutes left (remember you can check on the box to see about how long to cook it) add the shrimp to the pan. Shrimp cooks very quickly. When it’s in the shape of a C (for cooked, not an O for overcooked) and is a healthy pink, your shrimp is done. Add the wine to the pan.

Drain your pasta when it’s al dente.

Let the wine come to a soft bubble and add the pasta, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. (Don’t add the lemon juice early because the acid can cook sea food products).
Toss together and serve.

On your dinner plate place 1 cup of spinach. Sprinkle with olive oil to taste. Top with bacon bits. I found that 1 piece of bacon was enough to have some in every bite.

As a side note: I also drank a half of a glass of wine from the sauce with a half of a glass of mineral water to make a nice spritzer that tied into the flavors of the meal. Plus, with all of that bacon fat in the sauce, you may not want all of the calories of a full glass of wine.

Categories: Fish, Main Dish, Pasta, Salads, Salads

Submitted by: lisaajb on October 13, 2010