Pasta and Shrimp Sauce for Sunday Night Family Dinners
This is another of the recipes taught to me by our Grandma Sweetheart, Rose.
It is also one of those recipes where the amounts and the timing are really just made up because it all depends on your taste. I'll give you what I use but understand you can change it; I did. Rose never used the shrimp shells the way I do but I find it gives a deeper flavor to the sauce.
Be careful NOT to overdo the cloves and basil as the 2 have a synergistic, similar flavor.
This is a relatively thin, smooth textured sauce. The onion-straining step could be skipped if you don't mind a few little onion chunks. The onions mostly melt away anyhow and the melting into the sauce aspect could be enhanced with finer chopping instead of straining. Onion slicing is a good job for helpful kitchen volunteers
The hardest part of the whole thing is cleaning the shrimp. I really recommend foisting this job off on someone else whenever possible.
Ingredients
- 2 large yellow onions, sliced into thin rings
- about 36 ounces or about 1 Kg tomato paste
- about 28 ounces or about 800 grams tomato puree
- about ¼ cup or 2 ounces extra virgin olive oil
- water to taste to dilute tomato paste to thickness desired and to boil shrimp shells in
- 8 whole cloves
- 2 wholebay leaves
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons white sugar
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons ground black pepper
- 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
- fresh basil to taste, maybe about 4 - 8 stems with, oh, 12 or so leaves each
- grated, dry Italian cheese (type and amount to taste)
- about 2 pounds fresh or frozen then defrosted shrimp at least as large as #30 (30 shrimp per pound). Shrimp should have shells on when purchased.
- 16 ounces or about 450 grams pasta (I like linguine with this sauce)
Cooking Method
- slice onion thinly
- sauté onion in large, heavy pot with olive oil until brown and reduced; cook well but don't burn
- add tomato puree and a bit of water and boil enough to further reduce/melt onions
- strain onion/tomato/oil mix through a vegetable strainer (potato ricer/applesauce making thingie-bob) pressing to push through as much onion as possible until only the really fibrous bits remain. Discard those.
- Clean shrimp saving shells and discarding veins. Place clean shrimp in refrigerator.
- in same pot boil enough water to cook the shrimp shells...cook the shells with the lid on for about 5 minutes then allow the water to cool a bit. Strain them through the same strainer but do NOT press the shells, just allow the water to drain as if through a colander
- rinse the pot to get rid of any remaining shrimp shells and return the shrimp/water/tomato/onion/olive oil mix to the pot
- add tomato paste, salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaves and enough water to thin to desired serving consistency or slightly thinner (will thicken a little bit during cooking)
- bring to a boil, stir well then simmer for an hour or two with lid on. Stir every 20 minutes or so to prevent the bottom from burning
- about 30 minutes before serving time add cheese, sugar, and basil
- if possible put someone else in charge at this point and go take a shower
- continue to cook but stir more frequently, the cheese and sugar burn easily
- put water on to boil for pasta
- cook pasta al dente
- cook veggies, make salad, warm bread, make drinks, bring out butter and dip, set table
- add shrimp to the sauce, they will be done at about the same time as the pasta
- bring sauce back to a quick boil then return to simmer after adding shrimp
- correct seasonings (cheese, basil, salt, pepper, sugar) and add water if sauce is too thick
- toss pasta with just enough sauce to coat
- place pasta on a platter, put sauce in one bowl without shrimp and shrimp in a second bowl with a bit of sauce
- serve with the same grated cheese and small leaf basil (optional) at the table
- good with a salad or a steamed green vegetable like asparagus or broccoli
- good with Mezzanotte olive oil dip with sun dried tomatoes and fresh herbs and a crusty French or Italian bread
- good with mint iced tea, lemonade or wine of choice
- wonderful with ANY changes you want to make, these are not rules merely starting points and ideas and the way Rose did it and therefore a family tradition here.
- sit down with your family / friends and enjoy!
In Baltimore THE PLACE for Italian Groceries is:
Trinacria Macaroni Works
open 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Saturday
406 N Paca St
Baltimore, MD 21201-1880
410-685-7285
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