Celebrate Saturday: Champagne Budget Shrimp

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

Maybe it’s an anniversary. Maybe someone got a job promotion. Maybe you just want to say “I love you” to someone special. It seems we typically celebrate events on a Saturday when most people have more time to prepare food and linger over it at the table.

The recipes in “Celebrate Saturday” are ones that might take extra time, special ingredients, or require special techniques. These are recipes for special occasions, not rush-home-from-work-and-cook recipes.

If you don’t have a celebration every Saturday, substitute some other family fave, like spaghetti and meatballs. Or do what we sometimes do and order in wings and pizza (or make your own).

For tonight’s delectation, I am serving up Champagne Budget Shrimp. Champagne just automatically ups the ante, right?  Leftover champagne is great in this recipe. But you know what, if you don’t have champagne sitting around, use a white wine. One on the sweeter side (but not sweet) is great.

Champagne Budget Shrimp (serves 4)

8 ounces angel hair pasta

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup baby bella mushrooms, chopped

1 pound pre-cooked shrimp, remove tails if still on

1 ½ cups champagne (leftover is fine; use white wine if no champagne)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 large green onion, diced

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 cup heavy cream; divided

salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Asiago cheese, grated

Let shrimp thaw in champagne in a bowl. Stir occasionally to ensure all shrimp get a champagne bath. Remove shrimp and strain the liquid to remove shrimp shells.

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Cook mushroom until tender and remove from pan.

Add champagne and salt to skillet and cook over high heat. When liquid begins to boil, add in shrimp and stir. Remove after three minutes.

Boil until reduced to about ½ cup (about 10-12 minutes). Add green onion and tomatoes to skillet.

Cook pasta to al dente for 6-8 minutes in salted boiling water.

Stir ¾ cup of cream into skillet and boil until thickens, about 8-10 minutes.

Add mushrooms and shrimp to the skillet sauce to heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Toss hot cooked pasta with remaining ¼ cup cream and parsley. Dish up pasta then top with shrimp mixture and Asiago cheese.

NOTE: You can make this with raw shrimp. Add to skillet with the champagne and salt. Remove when liquid begins to boil. Add it in again at the end.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

I’m on a roll here! “This is really different,” says DH. “I like it. It’s a different way to eat shrimp.” I asked if I should make it again. “Definitely!”