Shrimp Diane

My family still uses this recipe as one of our holiday meals in lieu of the typical turkey/dressing song and dance. It's the ideal recipe for getting yourself comfortable cooking shrimp. 

Shrimp Diane
via Grady Griffin, The Woodlands Restaurant & Bar, Memphis, TN

Ingredients:
6 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons)
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
salt
black pepper
dried oregano, thyme, and basil
2 garlic cloves, minced

*You can play around with your own ratio of butter to wine. For instance, use 1.5 cups of white wine and half a stick of butter.

It comes together very quickly, so it’s definitely one of those recipes where you have to do the prep before you start cooking. The longest part of the recipe is boiling the water for the pasta. Because the shrimp cook so quickly, you may need someone else to man the pasta or make sure it’s done before you start on the sauce and shrimp.

So, start boiling a large pot of salted water for your pasta. I recommend angel hair but linguine would also work well here. And as it boils, we’ll slice just half a cup of mushrooms - the thinner you slice them, the quicker they cook. And then we’ll chop a quarter cup of green onions, the whites and the some of the greens.

In a large skillet, pour in a dry white wine and reduce it by half. When you add in the butter, you’ll add it in two stages so halve whatever amount you want to use, then quarter each portion. This helps the butter melt into the wine evenly.

Once the butter is melted, add in the shrimp. And now you have to watch them closely. They can overcook so easily - and remember, you can always keep cooking them if they’re underdone. So, what we’re looking for is for the immersed side to turn pink (the bottom), which happens pretty much as soon as you’ve placed all of them in there. So immediately start turning them - and this is why a pair of tongs is necessary for this recipe.

And once they’re turned, immediately add the sliced mushrooms and arrange them into the sauce, between the shrimp so they get good and saucy. Then add in seasonings like pepper, dried oregano, thyme, and basil to taste. So sprinkle in a couple pinches, stir, and taste. Add more, stir, and taste. And then add the other portion of butter, again, quartered so it can melt evenly, and add the chopped green onions and the minced garlic. And make sure everything is immersed in the sauce. And you’re done!

Now, if I had a bigger pan, I’d toss the pasta directly into the sauce, so it can cook together for a minute - this is a little trick of really good pasta. You can add a little starchy pasta water to the sauce and you can even add fish or shrimp stock to this dish for an even tastier entree, if you happen to have some laying around! And, you can make anything “diane” - you can cook strips of chicken or even beef this way.

Serve with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese and enjoy!