Garlic Basil Shrimp with Orzo Pasta

I'm always looking for new healthy dinner options. I have had lots of success with Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave cookbook. Several months ago I also purchased her newest book, So Easy, but haven't made much out of it to date. I recently honed in on a recipe that I thought both hubby and I would enjoy...Garlic Basil Shrimp.

I have made it twice now and it's official. It will be making regular appearances in our dinner line up. I asked hubby this evening if he liked it again the second time. He said, "I really, really, really like it a lot...very much". Let me translate that for you. He freakin loves it. Hubby is somewhat stingy with praise on food. It's something that I used to take personally, but I realize that it's not personal. He is equally stingy even when we dine out...at some pretty amazing restaurants. It takes a lot for a compliment above "it's ok" to come out of his mouth. There are literally a handful of dishes that hubby truly loves. And I'm super excited to add one to the list because I really enjoy this dish as well.


The shrimp is basked in a white wine sauce with fresh garlic, basil, and grape tomatoes served over orzo pasta. Of course I made a few modifications to the recipe. I added a bit of chicken stock and increased the wine...I'm a sauce girl. I would rather have extra than not enough. The other changes I made were to increase the garlic by a couple of cloves and to season the shrimp with salt and pepper before cooking them rather than adding the salt and pepper to the sauce at the end. Oh, and I also omitted the red pepper flakes. We're pretty wimpy when it comes to spicy stuff. The end result is a luscious sauce that has a wonderful depth of flavor but is light at the same time. Delicious!

A side note about shrimp. Do you ever use frozen shrimp? It's wonderful! We buy frozen uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp from Costco. We buy the 21-25 shrimp. 21-25 is a reference to the size of the shrimp. It means there are approximately 21-25 shrimp per pound. Some charts refer to this as jumbo and others say large. To me, large is a more appropriate description. Frozen shrimp are cinch to thaw and cook up in just minutes. It's one of our go to proteins for dinner!

Anyway, if you want a simple, easy, fresh delicious shrimp in garlic white wine sauce dinner try this recipe out!


Garlic Basil Shrimp
by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp (20 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
3 garlic cloves, minced (a little extra garlic doesn't hurt!)
1/8 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
3/4 cup dry white wine (I used 1 cup plus 1/2 cup chicken stock)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then saute shrimp, turning over once, until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the oil remaining in skillet and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add wine and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Stir in basil and tomatoes and season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Return the shrimp to pan and cook just until heated through.