Linguine, Shrimp, and Spinach with Lemon Infused Oil
Linguine, shrimp, and spinach, oh my! Did I mention lemon oil? It is not that often that I make pasta dishes, but when I do, they are really something else, and this is one of them. They times I do make pasta dishes are solely for my wife, as that is her thing. She loves pasta, and could probably eat it daily. So what is a husband to do? Well, cook her pasta. The flavors of this dish are pretty amazing, not just because of the shrimp and spinach, garlic, and onion, but the real kicker is the lemon infused olive oil. Lets get started.
Ingredients:
- 1 box of your favorite linguine
- 1-2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 3 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 cups of fresh, packed spinach
- 15 or so cleaned shrimp
Ingredients for lemon oil:
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
Start by making the oil, then setting aside until you are ready to make the dish. I prepared my oil in the morning, and used it around dinner time.
Begin by bringing a large pot of salted water to a boil. Why salted? To flavor the pasta of course. Cook for roughly 9 minutes. Drain, but RESERVE A CUP OF THE PASTA WATER. This is the trick with most pasta, reserve some water.
While the pasta is cooking, this is the best time to get your other items going. Chop your onion, garlic, and clean your shrimp. Heat a large skillet and bring the olive oil to temperature. Add in your garlic, onion and cook for a few minutes. Next, add in the shrimp. Cook the shrimp until they turn pink, roughly 4-6 minutes. Next toss in your pasta, lemon zest, salt and pepper (to taste), lemon juice, and some of the reserved pasta water. Now, add in your chopped spinach, toss, and remove from the heat. The final step is to strain (using a sieve) the lemon oil, and toss the oil into the mix. Mix well, and plate it up. I served mine with rustic garlic bread with parmesan cheese.
Let me just say that my wife spoke very little at dinner that night. She did make lots of noises and said things like ‘Oh my god’, ‘amazing’, and another ‘oh my god’. Looks like this one is going in the books.
