My parents recently celebrated my Daddy’s birthday with a family dinner at our beach house. Low key loveliness that I hated to miss. For the meal, they made a shrimp pasta using squid ink linguine they found on a recent trip to Boston. The whole family loved it, even two sometimes picky toddlers. Due to the success, my Mom sent me the recipe and some squid ink pasta of my own so I could recreate it. I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand the night I went to make it so I improvised. This recipe is all mine, but the inspiration is all them.
Note: This dish uses zucchini and you’ll want to draw the water out if it. Prep this 20+ minutes before you cook everything else by cutting it into matchsticks, putting it in a colander with salt and letting it sit. Ring out all the water with a paper towel. I also defrosted some of Trader Joe’s langoustine while I was at it.
When you’re ready to throw everything together, start boiling your squid ink linguine. Next, add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic to olive oil and sauté until it’s fragrant. When your kitchen smells beautifully garlicky, add in the zucchini and cook for about 30 seconds. At this point, you’re basically done so add in the langoustine and pasta. Toss everything to get it all coated with the garlic oil. Some crushed red pepper flakes and/or parsley would be great, but I forgot and still loved this dish. I do think it’s nice with some fresh grated parmesan.
It’s so so simple. No fancy sauces needed. Just the luxury of that langoustine and the flavor of garlic oil. This no-sauce sauce reminded me of the pasta dishes we ate on the Amalfi Coast, which was pretty much the best time in my life. I’ll take any opportunity to mentally revisit that place.
This was an ideal Sunday Supper. I served the pasta with a petit filet that I topped with a homemade horseradish sauce. We were feeling quite fancy this Sunday, I guess.
Peaches to Apples 