Blogworthy Recipe

Since becoming pregnant, most types of meat or protein don't taste very good or sound very appealing to me.  This means we have been eating a lot of pasta. I tried a new recipe from my Cooking Light cookbook on Monday that is similar to the tasty shrimp and pasta dish I ate so much of last summer, but this one has a Mediterranean twist to it.  A nice change and another one that will join my rotating recipe list.

Mediterranean Shrimp and Pasta Salad

Vinaigrette: 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp sherry vinegar (I couldn't find any at the store, so I subbed a nice red wine vinegar & it worked well.)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Salad: 

6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (I actually used more like 1 1/2 lbs.)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 2/3 cups cooked cavatappi (4 cups uncooked short twisted pasta)
1 cup trimmed arugula
1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1 cup yellow bell pepper strips
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup vertically sliced red onion
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano

Directions: 

1. To prepare vinaigrette, combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl, stirl with a whisk, and set aside. 
2. To prepare salad, combine water adn bay leaves in a large saucepan; bring to a boil.  Add shrimp; cook 3 minutes or until done.  Drain; rinse with cold water.  Discard bay leaves.  Sprinkle shrimp with salt and pepper.  Cover and chill.
3. Combine shrimp, pasta, arugula, and remaining 7 ingredients in a large bowl (it makes a lot!).  Drizzle vinaigrette over salad; toss gently to coat.  Makes about 5 servings.

It was well received....except by Eli, but I anticipated that and served him the pasta and shrimp without the vinaigrette and veggies mixed in.  He'll eat some veggies, but not these..  I served it with a Tomato Basil Soup (also from Cooking Light and also delish).  I won't be making the soup again for a bit as I burned my arm and a spot on my eye lid pretty badly after putting the simmering tomatoes and juice in the blender to puree to soup consistency and the top flew off.  OUCH!  For the time being, I'll be eating Tomato Herb V8 Soup....it tastes pretty close to my homemade version.  Definitely less painful.

Enjoy!