For summer, it’s a shrimp and pasta dish that can be served hot or cold
“Who cooks at home?” is the question most asked by a new friend.
“Well, I do,” I say. “And I’ll tell you why.”
I am a cookbook author married to a chef. So, I’m usually on dinner duty like all restaurant widows. After 20 years together, I know cooking for a chef requires a different level of care. If I am missing a single ingredient in a recipe, he will usually name it after his first bite.
Cooking for our two children isn’t much different. Our spicy teenage daughters have discerning palates, too; neither hesitates before giving feedback.
As a working mom cooking for a tough crowd, I have two criteria for any recipe: It has to be easy to make and delicious. If it has 10 ingredients or fewer, it will be easy. If the ingredients seem flavorful and include seasoning, it will be tasty. But to make it delicious, the key is fresh and seasonal ingredients.
This time of year, shrimp is in season and it’s my summer go-to. It cooks in a flash, and not only is it delicious, it’s also pretty.
Shrimp are like daffodils—they bloom all at once. Fishermen trawl the shrimp blooms along the coast of the Carolinas and down to Georgia throughout summer and fall. They catch hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of pounds of brown, pink and white shrimp in a single haul.
Beautiful, local shrimp is easy to come by here, due to the number of seafood markets across the Cape Fear region. I don’t think there is a neighborhood in the Port City that doesn’t have one within a 10- to 15-minute drive. Many are family-owned small businesses like Motts Channel Seafood, which isn’t far from my home.
Close your eyes and imagine a beach town fish market; that’s Motts. The little cedar-shake building topped with a teal tin roof sits on Bradley Creek at the end of a gravel drive. There is a wooden bench outfront and a dock out back. Inside you can pick up everything you need for a simple seafood dinner: fresh vegetables, starches like grits and orzo, beer and wine, dips and chips. The Long family has owned the market for 35 years. Lambert Long and his mom, Alison, are usually there and easy to talk to about all things seafood. It’s a great place to bring visitors for a local beach experience.
On a recent trip to the market, I asked Lambert how to tell if wild shrimp is fresh and was surprised to learn that only whole shrimp, or “head on” in market lingo, are sold boat-to-table. For the most part all shrimp, farmed or wild, are flash frozen on the boat once pulled from the water. Alison and I talked shrimp recipes: I was looking for something simple and delicious. She shared a family favorite for lunch on the boat: shrimp tortellini salad. She makes it a day ahead of time and packs it into Mason jars for easy eating on deck.
Kismet! One of my favorite childhood dishes was my grandmother’s shrimp tortellini. There is something I love about the bite-size shrimps and tortellini. Grandma always served it with a gorgonzola spinach salad and garlic bread.
It can be served warm as an easy dinner; leftovers make a great pasta salad for lunch. For the sauce, you only need to roast the eggplant on a single baking pan. Best of all, it features bounty from the sea, and your garden or farmers market. It doesn’t get much fresher.
