Recipe To Reality: Broccoli Shrimp Pasta Toss

Hola Sweethearts! Have you ever found yourself rushing home from a long, stressful day at work and wanting to prepare a quick and flavorful meal? This recipe is perfect for moms on the go or career women not wanting to sacrifice sacred time with family or friends for a time consuming meal. Since savory foods are more of Jasmines' forte, tonight I teamed up with my mother, Pattycake, to recreate this tasty dish she discovered about 3 months ago. To view the complete recipe by Natalie Van Viegen,   search for it on Allrecipes.com!

Ingredients ready to go!

As I mentioned previously, this is a simple dinner recipe-it only takes about 30 minutes total. Also, it is important in cooking to multitask-thus, boiling the water while you are preparing the actual broccoli mixture is crucial to carrying out the process in a timely manner. While making the recipe, I felt like the actual preparation of the various vegetables was most likely the part of the dish that was highly time consuming, as well as the actual cooking of the broccoli, onions, and garlic (about eight minutes).

Chopping veggies is easy with a food chopper!

Broccoli time!

To make the recipe our own, we added more of the ingredients than the recipe called for. That means a whole stick of butter compared to one tablespoon, as well as the use of fettuccine instead of bowtie pasta. I found that it was definitely important to stir the dish frequently to build up the flavor throughout the dish. The tasty medium of sweet and savory flavors in the dinner are really what makes it a new spin on traditional pasta recipes. 

The stirring definitely payed off-the broccoli was packed with a delicious blend of flavors. This is what makes this dish a great vegetable in disguise recipe, perfect for children and even picky adults who need a little bit of encouragement (Myself included). Although I did not taste the shrimp because of a traumatic experience a few years back, I have no doubt they were equally flavorful as well. As a rule of thumb, when the shrimp are pink they are safe to eat. 

Every chef needs a pre-meal snack!

There are two concerns I must voice about this dish. One- the broccoli seemed to disappear once the pasta was plated. The only explanation in my eyes was that the already small trees had become a little too tender and broken apart, coating the pasta. We had cut the vegetable smaller in order to cook it in a shorter amount of time. Two- Because we were waiting for my father to come home from work after we prepared the dish, it was left sitting out off the heat for a good 15 minutes or so. When it came time to eat, the pasta had definitely lost some of its flavor. That seems like the opposite of what should have happened-usually, when something is left to sit, the flavors intensify, but this was not the case for this recipe. All in all, though the dish brought up some complications, it is not doubt an easy answer that because of its simplicity and tasty flavors I will be making this colorful summer dinner again! Stay sweet, Candee