Tasty Shrimp With Orecchiette Pasta

My family loves this dish and the presentation is beautiful, but it isn't hard to prepare. I recommend using Orecchiette pasta as it is the perfect shape/size/flavor to compliment the shrimp and soak up the sauces. This recipe was adapted from a dish prepared at the HEB (Texas grocery store). They have a chef that prepares simple fresh food using expensive pre-prepared sauces. So, instead of paying $9.00 for a small jar of garlic-olive oil dipping sauce, I figured out how to make my own and I like it even better as I thought their version was too oily and not flavorful enough. It also tastes good reheated the next day for lunch (and you can really impress your coworkers as it looks/smells/tastes like it came from a fancy restaurant). I like to serve this dish with steamed broccoli and baby carrots for a very colorful plate.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 1⁄4 cup champagne vinegar
• 3  garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3  tablespoons parmesan cheese
• 2  cups  uncooked orecchiette pasta (or other small pasta)
• 0.5 (26 ounce) jar  tomato and basil pasta sauce (about 1-1/2 C)
• 1  lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
• 1  teaspoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 cup grape tomatoes, halved (or cherry tomatoes)

Directions

1. Combine first four ingredients in a small dish and set to the side.
2. Start water boiling for pasta.
3. Put pasta on to cook, according to package directions.
4. Heat the Tomato and basil sauce.
5. Rinse shrimp.
6. Saute shrimp over medium-high heat in the 1 T of olive oil until it turns pink (2-4 minutes).
7. Add oil and vinegar mixure and stir while cooking for one minute.
8. Turn off heat.
9. Drain pasta.
10. Add Tomato & basil sauce to pasta and stir to coat.
11. Add pasta to shrimp and stir to combine sauces.
12. Add tomatoes to dish.
13. Serve hot.