This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays comes from Dorie Greenspan’s latest cookbook, Everyday Dorie and was the first meal I made after getting back from vacation. After a week in hotels, I was desperate to cook again (don’t get me wrong, I love a good hotel but I do miss cooking!) and this was the perfect dish to get me back on track both cooking and eating after vacation – pretty easy to make (though a fair number of steps) and loads of vegetables!
Basically it’s pasta with zucchini and tomato and shrimp with a light sauce made with pasta water and butter. The recipe, as written has you cooking the shrimp in the pan then removing it, cooking the zucchini, removing it, then sautéeing the cooked pasta then adding back in the shrimp and veggies with pasta water and butter. The last steps are to add diced tomatoes, lemon zest and herbs.
I cut back on a few of these “transfer” steps (I don’t find that quick and easy for what is essentially a one pan dinner) and cooked the zucchini first, added in the shrimp, then the cooked pasta, then the water/ butter and lastly the tomatoes and lemon zest/ herbs. Obviously I adjusted the cooking times so that everything was only cooking for as long as it needed to but this way made more sense to me.
This was delicious and, whilst it was filling it was light. I loved the flavour of this but actually don’t even think it needed shrimp. I’ll be making this again with just the veggies (I don’t always have shrimp on hand but I do have veggies and pasta!).
Get the recipe for Pasta with Shrimp, Squash, Lemon and Lots of Herbs on page 204 of Everyday Dorie.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Everyday Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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This delicious pasta dish will work with all kinds of variations. I also liked it but thought the effort could be short-circuited. Thanbks for figuring that out for me.
funny– i cooked mine the same way. why bother to transfer when you can just stagger the cooking times? i liked the lemon and “lots of herbs” in this.
I skipped the last transfer step because I thought it was not necessary, but I did cook the shrimp separately. Love the warm tone of your dish.
A perfect dish for a hot summer day with out a heavy red sauce. I loved it.
Wow your photo is gorgeous ! This simple dish ended up inspiring me the most BECAUSE of the opportunities for options (and thinking out of the box) it allows. I can share that I would not have combine these exact ingredients were it not for the blog, which always makes it a fun adventure. And a tasty one !
Welcome home Mardi! I share your feelings about being eager to cook after vacation. This was a great re-entry recipe. I like the adjustments you made to streamline into a true one-pot dish. Your pasta looks so colorful. Happy New Year!
I like your adjustments for streamlining the process…that and less lemon for us next time sounds like a plan 🙂