cilantro lime shrimp pasta

If you haven't noticed from reading my recent posts, I am slightly excited about summer.  One of my favorite things about summer is the clothes.  I love just being able to walk outside and not have to worry about what I'm wearing.  In the winter I have to put on AT LEAST two layers of pants and three layers of tops/shirts before stepping outside my door.  In the summer I can just throw on some nike shorts and a t-shirt and I am good to geaux.

Apparently summer time brings me back to my cajun roots.

I don't think I have any actual cajun roots, but oh well.  A girl can dream.

Speaking of my non-existant cajun roots, let's talk about some seafood!  Specifically, this cilantro lime shrimp pasta that I created a week or so ago.  It is 1) easy 2) delicious 3) the perfect thing to make for summer!

Three cheers for summer!!! 

Shimp! Shrimp! Hooray!!  Shimp! Shrimp! Hooray!!  Shimp! Shrimp! Hooray!!

Alright, enough of all that business.  Here's the shrimp, yo:

 

Cilantro Lime Shrimp Pasta
(Serves 2 hungry boys, 1 normal ballerina, and 1 cute boyfriend for lunch the next day)

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs raw, deveined shrimp

juice and zest of 2 limes

about 3/4ths of a bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

salt &pepper

½ tsp sugar

olive oil
pasta of your choosing

Directions:
First, you'll want to wash off your cilantro and peel all of your shrimp.  Stick the shrimp back in the fridge while you prep the rest of your ingredients.

Clean cilantro.  Naked shrimp.

Next, you'll want to prep all of your stuff for the marinade.  Chop up the cilantro, mince the garlic, and zest and juice the limes.  Once all of that is done, stick everything in a bowl.  (Everything=the cilantro, garlic, lime zest and juice, sugar, and a few sprinkles of salt and pepper). 

Cilantro in the bowl waiting for some limes

Now it's time to pour in the olive oil.  There isn't an exact amount that I can give you guys, sorry!  It's like making a pesto...you have to just drizzle it in little by little until it looks right.  I probably added in about 1/3 of a cup. 

Once your marinade looks right, throw in the shrimp and toss to coat. 

Stick that in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes.  You don't want to leave it in there for too long, or you'll end up with ceviche.

At this point in the recipe you can choose what you would like your next step to be:

1) Stick the marinated shrimp on skewers and grill away

2) Throw the marinated shrimp on a foil-lined sheet pan and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until your shrimp is just pink throughout. 

I chose to go for option number two because I do not have a grill.  Bummer.

However, the shrimp look and taste great when roasted in the oven!  Take a peek:
   

While the shrimp is 1) grilling or 2) roasting away, boil up some of your favorite pasta (I chose good ol' angel hair)...

Drain the pasta, return it to the pan, and add in your grilled or roasted shrimp.  Toss that around, and add in some extra olive oil/butter if the pasta looks a little dry.  The good thing about roasting the shrimp is that all of the glorious juices remain on the sheet pan, and you can just pour that over the pasta.  Yum Yum.

I served my pasta with some fresh cilantro on top, a big lime wedge, some corny corn corn, and a slice of garlic bread.  It was a delicious dinner, and it was ready pretty quick!

This summer I will definitely be making this again.  Maybe I'll try grilling the shrimp next time and serving it along with a pineapple pico de gallo and a big, fruity summer drank.