Date Night At Home

Last weekend, Rowell and I had the rare opportunity to have a date night. Date nights these days are few and far between so when we get the opportunity, you better believe we take it! But this time, instead of going to a busy restaurant, spending too much money and having to put real pants on, we decided to make a meal at home, crack open a bottle of Zinfandel and watch a movie in our pajamas. Best decision ever!

I knew I wanted to make something rich and delicious, aka. carby, salty and creamy so…I decided to make pasta, duh!

This pasta recipe is so easy and the trick is to make sure you prep all the ingredients first before cooking. Once everything is prepped, the cooking process actually goes pretty quickly so you’ll have a yummy date night dinner on the table in less than hour.

Let me just tell you, we devoured this while watching Mission Impossible! We both had second servings and I have zero regrets. Date nights are meant to be indulgent so I’m not even sorry! I did go on a run the next day so its all about balance, people!

Anyways, I urge you to please give this a try. It is so good and so easy to make. This could easily be a $20+ dish at a restaurant and for the fraction of the cost, we made enough for our family of 4 and then some for lunch the next day.

By the way, I don’t have a proper name to this dish because I invented it on the fly so we’ll just call it Date Night Pasta.

Ingredients:

2 cups of shrimp peeled and deveined
6 slices of thick cut bacon
1 package of spaghetti
1 package of sliced mushrooms (about 8 oz)
1 big handful (or 2, you decide) of arugula
2 very ripe tomatoes chopped
5 cloves of garlic minced
5 oz of grated parmesan cheese
2-1/4 cup butter separated
1 cup of pasta water
1 tbsp of crushed red pepper

Instructions:

• Cook the pasta per the package directions and reserve 1 cup of pasta water
• In a large deep skillet, fry 6 slices thick cut bacon and set aside
• Discard most of the bacon grease but leave some just enough to coat the pan
• Cook the shrimp for about 1 minute on each side and set aside
• Add 1/4 cup of butter
• Add garlic, tomatoes mushrooms and cook for about 3-4 minutes
• Cover and let cook for another minute
• Add the other 1/4 cup of butter
• Add the cooked spaghetti noodles
• Mix well and add pasta water to break up the noodles. Make sure to add the pasta water a little at a time.
• Add the parmesan cheese but leave some to sprinkle on top
• Season with salt and pepper
• Mix well and serve on a large platter
• Enjoy with your favorite glass of wine

Kitchen Tools Used:

All Clad 4-Quart Saute Pan: https://amzn.to/2WDHYFD

Miyabi 7” Santoku Knife: https://amzn.to/2Ump0pq

Portable Induction Burner: https://amzn.to/2HReRuT

Organic Bamboo Cooking Utensils: https://amzn.to/2TKaYK2

Large Wood Cutting Board: https://amzn.to/2Oylv9Y

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