Well, September has arrived. For many, this is a bittersweet time of year. We must say our goodbyes to longer days, cookouts, beach trips and the end to a lengthy school break. However, on the bright side, we can welcome the autumn season’s many gifts: a reprieve from heat waves, Halloween and Instagram posts of fall foliage and images of everything pumpkin-spiced.
To savor just a tad more of summer fresh ingredients, we present this recipe for Garlic Shrimp with Zucchini Noodles and Raw Tomato Sauce. The inspiration comes from an Angel Hair Pasta dish from Smitten Kitchen. The raw sauce is a simple yet flavorful celebration of tomatoes at their peak ripeness. The noodles made from the summer squash give the meal a light, yet satisfying feel, perfect for the oppressive summer days when the thought of cooking makes you perspire even more. The generous handful of fresh basil finishes the dish with a delightful summer flavor, compliments of your summer herb garden.
Spiralizing noodles out of vegetables has become quite the culinary fad on the internet over the past few years. They do provide a lighter alternative to pasta dishes while adding an extra serving or two of veggies to your meal. Win-win.
Kyle does not own a spiralizer, but he does own a mandolin. Using the julienne blade he cut the squash into long thin strips. If you do not own a spiralizer or a mandolin, using a vegetable peeler to create thick ribbon-size noodles (creating a squash pappardelle, if you will) will work just fine. If you wanted to go a step further, you can slice those ribbons into thinner Angel Hair noodles. We used a mix of zucchini and yellow squash for this recipe, but any combination of squash would work great in this dish!
Once you have completed the spiralizing (or slicing) of the squash, the recipe is quite quick and easy to prepare. Just an FYI: please do not skip the step of draining your squash. You want to remove as much liquid as possible from your “noodles” to avoid watering down the sauce. While your squash is draining, you can whip up the sauce and cook the shrimp.
Even with the making of the squash noodles (don’t let noodle making scare you, once you get the hang of it, you won’t want to stop) this dish really is easy to prepare. The whole dish comes together in about 30 minutes or so, making it a great meal for a lazy Sunday or a busy weeknight.
Kyle wanted to increase the amount of garlic in the dish, but at the same time he tried to avoid a ton of pungent raw garlic in the tomato sauce. He omitted the garlic clove from the raw sauce and instead sautéed the garlic in with the shrimp. When preparing the dish, the “noodles” only need to be added to the pan for a minute just to heat them through – any longer and you will risk overcooking them and therefore will end up serving a big bowl of mushy squash strands.
Much to my surprise, this dish does not even need a grating of fresh Parm to make the meal complete. This almost seems like a blasphemous statement – no cheese??? However, once you try it ,I think you will agree. In addition, this omission renders the dish dairy, gluten and grain free. An added gift from this recipe is that the refrigerated leftovers are equally delicious – it can give the second serving a re-purposed, chilled noodle salad vibe. However you choose to enjoy this dish – it is the perfect last hurrah for the summer season!
Sauce adapted from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen.
- For the noodles:
- 1 ½ pounds zucchini or yellow squash (or a mix of both!)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- For the Sauce:
- 1 ½ pounds tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- For the shrimp:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
- Dash red pepper flake
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- To serve:
- ½ cup basil leaves, thinly sliced
- For the “noodles”: using a mandoline or spiralizer, slice your squash into long, thin strips (make sure you don’t use the seed-filled core). Toss with 1 teaspoon kosher salt in a colander, and set in the sink to pull out as much liquid from the squash. (At least 30 minutes. You can start working on the other parts of this recipe while the squash drains).
- For the sauce: Core and coarsely chop two thirds of tomatoes. Halve remaining tomatoes crosswise, then rub cut sides of tomatoes against large holes of a box grater set in a large bowl, reserving pulp and discarding skin. Toss pulp with chopped tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, sugar (if using), pepper, and olive oil. Let stand until ready to use, at least 10 minutes.
- For the shrimp, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant and golden - but not brown - 1 minute. Add shrimp and a dash of red pepper flakes and raise heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring often, until shrimp are opaque, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Give your squash noodles a good squeeze (to drain even more liquid out) and add to the pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until heated through, about 1 minute. Err on the undercooked side here, because the squash can get mushy if left in the pan too long. Remove from heat and divide the shrimp/squash mixture evenly into 4 bowls. Ladle the tomato sauce on top and garnish with a heap of fresh basil.
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