Grilled shrimp, fresh pea and ricotta pasta: a brief and delicious sideline from soup

The story: I recently moved to Brooklyn and inherited a great apartment, a real, big girl dining room table and a backyard with a grill. Those three things put together spell one thing: DINNER PARTY! And boy, did I have one.

I was having my friend B. over, who is my oldest friend and owner of this fabulous blog, as well as her boyfriend. B. had recently discovered youmakethebestsoup and was dismayed by my lack of recent postings, so we decided to make on rip-roaring delicious meal and post it, soup be damned!

This meal was entirely based upon and inspired by my local farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza, an awe-inspiring setting for a pretty awe-inspiring spread of fresh veg, meat, flowers, dairy, and even a fishmonger. My roommie and I cruised by there on Sat before a reallllllllly looooooong bike ride (38 miles, NBD) and I saw they had fresh peas. I.love.fresh.peas. I became obsessed with them in Morocco and buy them as often as possible during their season. I find shelling peas soothing, and eating shelled peas...a miracle of nature, taste, and spring. So I bought a ton, carried them in my backpack for 38 miles, and schemed a great meal for my big inaugural dinner party.

The Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh pasta, whatever floats your boat


• 1/2 cup fresh, part-skim ricotta


• 1 large shallot, diced


• 1 small yellow onion, diced


• 3 cloves of garlic, diced


• 2 tablespoons butter


• as many freshly-shelled peas as you can handle (we did about 2.5 cups)


• 1/2 lb deveined, shell-on shrimp


• some dried thyme


• Olive oil


• salt


• freshly grated parmesean

The cooking:

Melt the butter on low heat in a saute pan and saute/sweat the shallot, onion and one chopped clove of garlic on low heat until they are clear and mild-smelling. Meanwhile, toss the shrimp with some olive oil, the rest of the garlic, salt and some dried thyme. Let them sit for 1/2 hour and marinate. Once the garlic/shallot/onion combo is done, mix it in with the ricotta. Shell the peas and lightly boil them in water for 5 minutes or so until cooked but not mushy. Grill the shrimp, cook the pasta, lightly toss the cooked pasta in olive oil.

The serving:

Put the pasta in a large bowl and toss in the peas. Plop clumps of the ricotta mixture on top, lightly mixing in, and then the shrimp. Finish with some sea salt and a layer of fresh parmesean. Thank you, Brooklyn.