Fresh Linguine with Garlic Shrimp and Homemade Pesto

Making your own pesto is quite easy and using a mortar and pestle is by far, the best way to achieve a good-tasting pesto. The circular movement of the pestle squeezes rather than crushes the basil leaf thereby helping to release its aromatic oils. In John Dickie’s book, Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, he wrote that pesto was originally used mostly to flavor vegetable soups. It wasn’t until 1910 that it began to be used as a sauce for pasta. Earlier versions of pesto used parsley or marjoram instead of basil, and did not include the pine nuts. Pesto is a perfect partner for pasta but is also at home dolloped on soup, mixed with cream cheese and spread on a bagel, stirred into risotto, add pesto to chicken breasts baked in the oven, in a cream sauce, mixed with mayonnaise, on gnocchi or use as a pizza base to name a few. 

Serves 4
recipe adapted from Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone
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Pesto:
1 ½ cups (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 cherry tomatoes on the vine
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
9 ounces fresh linguine (from the dairy case)
2 garlic cloves, minced
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Parmesan shavings (for garnish)

To make the pesto, squeeze the basil, pine nuts and grated Parmesan cheese with a mortar and pestle until a smooth paste forms. (If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a food processor instead.) Slowly add the olive oil, squeezing until a smooth sauce forms. Season the pesto with salt and pepper to taste. Then cover and set it aside.

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the vine of tomatoes in an ovenproof skillet. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the oil over the tomatoes and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Roast the tomatoes in the oven for 8 minutes, or until heated through. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the linguine and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking for about 2 minutes, or until al dente. While the linguine cooks, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shrimp and sauté for about 3 minutes, or until the shrimp are just cooked through and the garlic is tender. Stir the pesto into the shrimp mixture.

Drain the linguine, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the linguine in a large bowl with the shrimp-pesto mixture, adding enough of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten the sauce so that it coats the pasta evenly. Using a two-pronged carving fork, swirl some pasta around the fork. Slide it off the fork letting it mound in the center of a plate. Repeat. Arrange the shrimp and roasted tomatoes around the pasta. Garnish with the cheese and serve.

The Culinary Chase’s Note: I usually make more than what the recipe calls for and freeze the rest in ice cube trays for later use. Store pesto in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week, or in the freezer for about six months.  A scrumptious meal ready in under 30 minutes. Lovely!

By The Glass Tasting Note: There’s a wonderful delicacy to this Italian inspired pasta dish. The perfect wine needs to share the dish’s sense of simplicity and freshness. Italy’s coastal appellations offer up a surprisingly stylish mix of fragrant and fresh whites including Vermentino from Tuscany (Guado al Tasso’s is a revelation), Verdicchio from the Marches (look for La Monseca Verdicchio di Matelica) or go head to Campania and order up a bottle of Falanghina; the white wines of Marissa Cuomo from the little known Furore area in the Amalfi Coast are well worth hunting for.