“All sorrows are less with bread.”
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Simple Ingredients Combine for a Delightful Finish
We have a bit of a bread problem around here. Problem might be an overstatement, let’s go with obsession shall we? We are unabashedly seduced by it at every turn. The bakery, the grocery store or even just seeing someone else with a fresh baguette or boule wandering by, all have left me in a gluten haze so complete that I might easily forget the rest of my list and just bring home loaves upon loaves of freshly baked deliciousness. I have neither excuses nor shame.
I asked John once why he had brought so much home that particular day. His response was that he couldn’t help himself, “it was steaming warm!” Well, when you put it that way.
So the problem part is that as much as we all love bread to complete and utter distraction, we never ever ever finish as much as we all seem to want to bring home with us. (Eyes and stomach and all that) As such I am tasked with finding new and exciting ways to use up almost-but-not-quite stale bread.
I’ve shown you how I use it to make croutons. I’m making a batch as I type this! I’ve used it for the lovely Mushrooms with Spinach and Lemony Breadcrumbs which is a staple around here. And recently while reading through one of my beloved Biba cookbooks about how to use breadcrumbs to thicken soup (which I’ll try soon and share the results with you!) I stumbled upon a version of this recipe.
The aroma of the breadcrumbs cooking with the garlic and olive oil is knee-weakening! Super quick too, but I highly recommend keeping a close watch. I don’t know about you but I burn bread REGULARLY. In fact, I recently made some hummousa, which is a pita bread, split open heavily buttered and broiled (Oh Yes! You really have to try it!) and MIRACULOUSLY managed not to burn it… the incredulity of my husband when I presented him with perfectly toasted hummousa actually bordered on insulting in a weirdly sweet sort of way.
The rest of the ingredients and instructions are quite stupidly simple. In order to preserve the fresh flavour of the parsley however in the future (and in the recipe below) I willl save a good deal of the parsley to finish.
On the subject of the shrimp, I cannot suggest strongly enough that you spend the extra dough (yes I just did that!) to get high quality sustainably sourced. They tend to eat a natural diet which means they actually taste like shrimp, not just crunchy seafood-y something-or-others.
You will simply not believe the spectacular benefit the breadcrumbs offer this otherwise rather unremarkable dish. You might wind up bringing home a little extra “steaming warm” bread just to make these gorgeous garlic-y morsels.
Menu Suggestion: A simple side salad is all that is necessary here so I will leave you with Warm Mushroom and Parmigiana Salad
Wine Pairing: My brother is back and I love this weeks suggestion! Gavi di Gavi is possibly one of my favourite white wine choices!
“This dish makes me salivate. Easy would be a nice Pinot Grigio or citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, but let’s get people off that branch and go for Gavi di Gavi, from the terrific Cortese grape. It offers a lot of the acids, citrus, fruit character that you would get from the more common choices, but it’s more fun!” I couldn’t agree more!
Enjoy & Namaste!
- ½ cup olive oil divided
- 8 cloves garlic, minced and divided
- 2 cups breadcrumb
- zest and juice of 1 large lemon
- Shrimp, depending on size about 3-5 per bowl
- ½ cups parsley, rough chopped + more for garnish
- 1 small jar capers, rinsed
- 1 tsp
chilli pepper flakes - ½ - 1 cup reserved pasta cooking water
450 gram package pasta of choice, I used afettucine
- Heat ½ of the olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat
- Add bread crumbs, stirring until coated with oil
- Add ½ of garlic and stirring VERY frequently until golden
- Add lemon zest and toss then transfer to a bowl and set aside for use later
- Put pasta water on to boil
- Wipe pan out and heat second half of oil
- Sauté shrimp until just pink, you can slightly undercook them at this point as they will finish up later, remove to a separate bowl
- While your pasta cooks, sauté second half of garlic,
capers and parsley over medium heat until you can just start to smell the garlic. - Remove ½ cup pasta water at a time and add to garlic,
capers and parsley, keep warm over low heat while pasta finishes cooking. * DO NOT DRAIN PASTA BUT IF YOU MUST ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RINSE PASTA! LIKE EVER!- With a slotted spoon or pasta fork transfer cooked pasta to the sauce, add shrimp and toss to coat
- Add about ½ of the breadcrumbs, remaining parsley,
chilli pepperflakes and juice from lemon - Serve with extra breadcrumbs on the side
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