Tangy White Wine and Sundried Tomato Bucatini with Shrimp

This is a fun recipe that I cooked off-the-cuff a few weeks back and it was so yummy that I felt it deserved to be immortalized. It's tangy, a little spicy, and really not that difficult to achieve depth of flavor with such great components. This recipe lets the ingredients really shine! I love the occasional inspiration I get to use shallot instead of onion, and here it combines so beautifully with the white wine and sundried tomato.

This dish ends up fairly light, so if you try making it and the sauce seems thin: don't worry! Keep adding parmesan and mixing it up. If you've never had bucatini, it is so fun and so delicious with a thinner sauce like this. Bucatini resembles spaghetti, but is thicker due to a hole running the entire interior length of the noodle! Since the hollow noodle soaks up any liquid it's placed in, the dish will taste incredible even if it doesn't seem like there is a lot of sauce.

Important note: Salt every layer to taste!

Ingredients

• 1 package bucatini

• 1 lb of fresh shrimp

• 1 shallot

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 serrano pepper

• 2 tbsp sundried tomato

• 1 cup white wine

• 2 tbsp dijon mustard

• 2 tsp chili flakes

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1 cup fresh chopped parsley

• 2 tsp fresh chopped basil

• 3 cups grated parmesan

• 1/2 cup lemon juice

• 2 tbsp butter

• Olive oil

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes

Instructions

1. Clean shrimp and marinate in a mixture of:

   1. Salt

   2. Pepper

   3. Dijon mustard

   4. 1/4 cup white wine

   5. 1/4 cup olive oil

   6. Juice of one lemon

   7. Lemon zest

2. Fully heat a large pan on low-medium heat (I recommend stainless or cast iron)

3. While the pan is heating, prep the ingredients for the sauce:

   1. Thinly slice the shallot

   2. Mince the garlic

   3. Thinly slice/mince the sundried tomatoes

   4. Thinly slice the serrano pepper (substitute: chili flakes)

   5. Grate your parmesan

   6. Slice cherry tomatoes in half: longways

   7. Slice up your herbs

4. Melt the butter, a glug or two of olive oil, and a splash of oil from the sundried tomato jar in your large pan

5. Make sure the butter and oils are not burning and put in your shallots and sliced serrano peppers

   1. Mix as needed to ensure even cooking

6. Once the shallots and peppers have softened (4-5 mins) add in the garlic

7. Once the garlic has softened, add the tomato paste and let toast

8. Add the sundried tomatoes, juice of one lemon, lemon zest, a generous pinch of salt, fresh black pepper, and chili flakes. Mix well

9. Let cook and bring temp closer to medium

10. Add shrimp and cook 1 min on each side

11. Add in the white wine and allow to simmer (should cook off the alcohol in 3-4 mins)

    1. If you're feeling zesty, add a little of the marinade from the shrimp at this stage. Everything in the marinade is used in the sauce except the dijon mustard, so keep that in mind when evaluating the flavor profile. It's delicious either way!

12. At some point while you're working on the sauce, generously salt and start cooking your bucatini. I boil mine 9 minutes and it comes out a perfect al dente ready to finish in the sauce

    1. Once the pasta is done SAVE AT LEAST 1/2 CUP OF PASTA WATER!! This finishes the sauce

13. Once the pasta is nearly ready and the alcohol has cooked out of the sauce, add the cherry tomatoes, basil, and some of the parmesan to the saucepan

14. Add in all the cooked bucatini, another helping of parmesan, juice of 1/2 lemon, MORE parmesan, and start stirring vigorously while you add in your saved pasta water

    1. If you're confused about pasta recipes asking you to save pasta water: the starch and salt in the water from cooking the pasta help to emulsify your sauce. So the pasta water+pasta+sauce+vigorously beating= silky, shiny, restaurant-quality pasta

15. Serve the pasta in a bowl with chopped parsley, parmesan, and black pepper on top. Garnish with a lemon wedge and enjoy!