Spicy shrimp and sausage pasta

"Christmas is coming"

Its November, another month of recipes for your holiday table. In Jamaica we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we throw down for Christmas dinner. However, these recipes will work perfectly for your Thanksgiving dinner as well, if you want a departure from the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. This month, I will be sharing recipes for two side dishes, a main dish with chicken, a seafood dish and a simple dessert. So we start things off with a rather untraditional pasta side dish that can replace mac n cheese without anyone noticing.

A few months ago I had to make a quick dinner with whatever I had in my freezer and cupboards. This recipe was born from a random night in March 2018. I posted three images to Instagram and the comments and likes poured in like the rain we have been having in Mandeville recently. I used the images to create a few sponsored posts and it never fails to amaze me how much people gravitate towards it and want to know the recipe.

So I decided that this is as good a time as any to post the recipe. It’s a bit on the spicy side and the garlic and wine flavor are very strong. I used Jerk sausages because that’s what I had on hand. Feel free to use chorizo or an Italian sausage, they will work just as well. Try to go with a good quality sausage, something in a casing where you can see the herbs ground into the meat. These add the most flavor to your sauce. If your sausage is on the soft side and not the firm side, you can remove it from the casing and use the ground up filling instead of slicing it.

The plump juicy shrimp with the spicy sausage and the creamy garlic wine pasta are truly a match made in heaven. I hope you guys enjoy the recipe as much as we did. One thing I will say, the flavor gets better with age. I kid you not, the leftovers only taste better and better. And because the shrimp were not overcooked in the first place, a little nuke in the microwave to reheat it, will not render it tough and rubbery. Consider this an early Christmas present from me.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

1 lb dried elbow pasta

5 jerk sausages

1 lb raw shrimp peeled and deveined (tail on)

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoon Onion powder

3 tablespoon coconut oil

1 large onion minced

1 large tomato chopped

1 lime zest and juice

1 bottle sweet white wine

2 cups heavy cream

8 cloves garlic shredded

1 cup starchy pasta water

1.5 tablespoon Sugar

1 teaspoon ground Oregano

1 teaspoon Smoked paprika

½ teaspoon Cumin

¼ teaspoon black pepper

salt to taste

¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

Instructions

• Finely mince 2 of the jerk sausages and slice in larger chunks the remaining 3
• Season the shrimp with black pepper, salt, onion powder, and red pepper flakes
• In a large pan on medium high, heat the coconut oil and add the onions and minced sausages
• Once fragrant and the onions begin to soften add the shrimp
• Cook shrimp about 1 minute per side, once they begin to get pink flip them
• Remove the shrimp from the pan leaving behind the minced sausage and onion
• Add the large sausages and tomatoes and saute for 3 minutes
• Slowly add wine to the pan, about 1 cup at a time, allow it to continually reduce before adding another cup until the entire bottle of wine has been used
• While the wine is reducing this is a good time to start the cooking of the pasta
• Once the entire bottle of wine is reduced, turn the heat to medium-low and add lime juice and zest along with the heavy cream and shredded garlic
• Once this comes to a slow bubble, the pasta should be cooked, add 1 cup of the hot starchy pasta water to the sauce
• Season the sauce with sugar, oregano, salt, smoked paprika, cumin, and black pepper.
• Allow the sauce to slightly thicken
• Add the shrimp back to the sauce along with the strained pasta and stir, making sure to coat all the pasta with the sauce
• Turn off the heat and stir in the fresh parsley
• Serve

Greedy tips:

• Do not use precooked shrimp at all, you need to use raw shrimp to ensure that the shrimp is not overcooked. 
• You can take the tail off the shrimp if you like, I  prefer it on because they do not curl up as much.

Xoxo Greedy girl