First day back from a two week vacation, yep, work was pretty busy today. Getting home about 6.45ish and feeling the effects of a day with no nap (man I miss those), I resorted to making an old standby for dinner ... PASTA.
So how does one begin my quick old standby? Well, you can't see it from the picture, but at the bottom of that is a nice (albeit small since the post-vacation diet is in effect) pile of previously frozen tortellini with a bit of bottled Alfredo sauce. The trick to turning this dinner from reheated pasta :-( to Yea, Pasta! :-) is the toppings ...
For tonight's pasta I used roasted Brussels sprouts (saw them at the store yesterday and they just yelled out to me) combined with a sautéed veggies and shrimp topping ... The Brussels sprouts were roasted in the oven with olive oil & truffle salt (20 minutes at 425, turning once half way ... turn again, then 15 minutes at 350). I used large shitake mushroom caps (quartered), asparagus spears (cut into about 4 pieces each) & kale (about 1/2 bunch, roughly torn) & 12 large shrimp (shelled and de-veined) for the veggie & shrimp topping. The topping was sautéed in light olive oil over medium heat (add a little salt and pepper to taste as you go) with the veggies going in first, turning often, for about 15 minutes ... followed by the shrimp in for about 10 minutes, turning once in the middle to ensure they are cooked evenly.
Plating towards the top ... place pasta on the plate, put three shrimp on either side, and 4 sprouts on the large plate side ... divide the shrimp and veggie topping onto the top of the pasta.
Optional add ons include shaved parmesan cheese on top of the mix ... and with that you have a 35 minute dinner that tastes awesome, is fairly healthy, and will still leave you time to hit the couch for a bit to unwind before you head to bed in preparation for tomorrow.
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