Spanish-Style Toasted Pasta with Shrimp

You could say I like to experiment in the kitchen. When just a child, I pulled all the pimentos out of a jar of olives and stuffed each one full of cottage cheese. Do you know how hard that is? Olive openings are pretty tiny and trying to get anything in there by hand is difficult. I tried several methods including fingers, spoons, knives and eventually got it in there with a fork. Well, it was really just a single fork tine, but I did it. It required plenty of practice and patience. Apparently, I had a lot of free time then, more than I seem to have since I got older. (Anyone else suddenly have a taste for bleu cheese olive martinis. Anyone? Too early?)

When I was offered the opportunity to test this seafood paella, my adventurous side took over and I thought, This might be fun, I’ve never made paella before. After peeling and deveining what seemed like all the shrimp in the sea, wrapping and breaking pasta noodles into just the right size pieces and creating a week’s worth of dirty dishes, I ended up with an impressive dish for sure. I’d tweak it for our family’s tastes, but if you want one of those serious dishes for serious company, this could be it.

I’d make sure to allow yourself plenty of time. Oh, and get the fishmonger to peel and devein the shrimp. I would have, except I was tight on time and bought the only fresh shrimp available.

Here’s a helpful Cook’s Illustrated video, they make it look so easy!

You can find the recipe on their site or in the July/August 2012 Cook’s Illustrated issue. I highly recommend serving the aioli along with it, yum! Here are some work in progress photos as well. Enjoy!