Easy Spicy Shrimp Pasta - Low Fat

Mama's Kitchen (Hope)'s Note:

Romantic little recipe for two that wont leave you too full to flirt! Yummy garlic and wine sauce coat the shrimp and pasta. A salad and some crusty fresh bread would be very nice with this and a nice chablis or chardonnay wouldn't hurt either! I came up with this after totally revamping a recipe found on healthycookingrecipes.com. "PLEASE adjust the seasonings to make it perfect for you and DO let me know how you change it up." Enjoy!

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 8 ounces pasta, any kind
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 lemon, juice and zest of, about 2 Tbsp juice
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (adjust to taste) or 1 -2 jalapeno pepper, diced (adjust to taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed or 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 tomato, chopped
• salt
• fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. Boil the pasta in salted water until it is done to your liking.
2. Drain well reserving about 1 cup of pasta water.
3. Place pasta in serving bowl or divide among two dinner bowls.
4. While pasta water is heating zest and juice lemon and prepare all ingredients. This recipe will go FAST!
5. After adding pasta to boiling water, sprinkle a small amount of olive oil in a cold nonstick skillet and smear around with your CLEAN fingers. (Massage oil left on your fingers into your hands - it will make them silky soft.).
6. Turn heat on to medium high let pan warm for a minute or two. You want the pan to just be warm when you hold your hand over the surface.
7. Add the shrimp, garlic, onion, lemon rind, and pepper and cook stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Shrimp will just start to turn opaque but not yet pink.
8. Add tomatoes, salt, basil, lemon juice, and white wine. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. (If using dried basil crush in hand before adding to pan to release oils. A different herb can be substituted if you prefer- just use the same quantity.).
9. Add in as much of the 1 cup reserved pasta water as you like- if any- to make as much sauce as you would like.
10. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings to your taste. If you would like a more onion or garlic flavor, add onion or garlic powder.
11. Spoon over drained pasta and garnish with fresh black pepper or additional pepper flakes if desired.
12. Other nice garnishes would be a little chopped parsley or green onion as well as a sprinkling of fresh grated parmesan.
13. Light the candles, top off the wine glasses and serve!

Reviews

[Chef #726534]

Even if it is low fat, 616 calories per serving is waaaaay more than I want to eat for dinner, no matter how romantic the meal is! I lowered the calories by making the 8 ounces of pasta yield four servings instead of just two (4 ounces of pasta per person is a HUGE serving). That cut it down to 324 calories per serving, a lot more reasonable for someone trying to lose weight. Other than the humongous serving size, this is a great recipe for losing weight because the result is totally satisfying and extremely delicious, even with half the the pasta. I loved it, and my non-dieting husband loved it too. He said it was "restaurant quality" (he ate more than 1 serving, of course). I started out with only 1 tablespoon lemon juice but I couldn't taste it at all, so I added another. I still couldn't really taste it so I'm not sure why so many people thought the recipe was too lemony. I didn't have any regular white wine so I used rice wine, which is a little more robust than regular table wine, so maybe that mellowed out the lemon. Or maybe the people who thought it was too lemony didn't add the wine at all?? I also cut the red pepper flakes down to 1 tsp. and that was plenty hot for us. Thanks for a great recipe. I'll definitely be making it again.

[jaccozart]

I love this low fat recipe! Even my boyfriend and one of his friends couldn't believe it was actually good for them! I didn't have any green onions, instead I chopped up a sweet onion, and a little green pepper. Turned out amazing! They have been begging for me to make it again, plan on doing it this weekend. Thanks so much for posting such a fabulous recipe!

[Scandium98]

Loved it, with these mods:

1. Use 1 can diced tomato in favor of chopped
2. Reduce to juice & zest of 1/2 a lemon
3. Reduce pepper flakes (a few shakes will do, unless you like breathing fire)
4. Add a few tsps of sugar to counteract the bitterness of lemon

I also used cooked shrimp I had on hand (just add it at the end) and omitted the green onion, it came out great! I drank it with the rest of the Chardonnay I used for the sauce :)