Shrimp & Caper Cappellini with a White Wine-Butter Sauce
A light pasta dish featuring a white wine sauce, wild-caught shrimp and diced tomatoes. Perfectly served in summertime, during the peak of tomato season.
Any dish that finds a way to incorporate white wine into itself is a great summertime dish. Plus, tomatoes are in season. Double bonus. And now for the triple whammy, making this the ultimate summertime pasta dish, shrimp are light and not overfilling. Oh yeah, and they are pretty darn good, too.
Here are a few tips for preparing this dish before you dive right in:
1) You are what you eat. And so are shrimp. Shrimp caught in the wild, for the most part, has been feasting on things that they should be feasting on. Farmed shrimp are, very likely, not. So! If it is within your budget, always go for the wild-caught swimmers at the seafood counter.
2) Capers taste gross if you don't rinse them.
3) Don’t let this freak you out or anything, but you are about to make a make-shift beurre blanc sauce. "What’s that?," you may ask. Well, it is some fancy French words for a white wine sauce with butter in it. Yum. However, we all know how finicky those French folks can be. I can totally say that cause I’ve got a pretty decent amount French blood running through these veins. Back to the sauce. You should not rush through the butter stage of this recipe, and certainly do not raise the heat above medium-low. Your sauce will break and so will your heart.
4) Once you have added your shrimp to the sauce, keep the lid on until at least 7 minutes have passed. The steam created by the lid is necessary to cook your shrimp all the way through.
1 lb Wild-Caught Shrimp (18/20s)
Shallot, minced
5 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 c Dry White Wine, preferably Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
2 Tbsp Capers, drained, rinsed and roughly chopped
1 ½ c of Cold, Unsalted Butter, cut into ¼” cubes
5 Medium-Sized Tomatoes, cored, seeded and diced
½ lb Angel Hair Pasta, cooked to al dente according to package instructions
Peel and devein shrimp. Set aside until ready to use.
Add olive oil to a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add shallot and garlic and sauté 3-5 minutes until softened. Stir in wine, along with capers, and increase heat to medium-high. Allow to boil until significantly reduced, 5-8 minutes.
Reduce heat back to medium-low. Using only a few cubes of butter at a time, gently whisk into the wine sauce until melted and repeat until all of the butter has been incorporated. Season with salt and pepper. Add shrimp to sauce in a single layer, place lid on sauté pan and allow to cook for 7-8, covered, until the shrimp has turned pink and is somewhat firm to the touch. Stir in tomatoes. Spoon sauce over pasta and enjoy.
Serves 6-8
Would pair well with:
Dry White Wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
