Spicy Lemon Roasted Shrimp Rotini

Pasta is one of my favourite dishes to make. It's quick and easy and the variety of different pastas and sauces is endless.

Having a garden in the backyard allows me to create a variety of pasta dishes, fresh daily, without having to worry about the vegetables going bad. Because of this access to fresh and very local vegetables, it influences me to create dishes based around the garden.

I had shrimp in the freezer, half a lemon and the fresh vegetables in the back yard. I decided on making a shrimp pasta with tomatoes and basil. Lemon is so great with seafood, which is why I wanted to add it to the shrimp. Also, the lemon just turns it into a summer dish by making it taste so light and fresh. Apparently, hot tea in the summer helps you cool down, so maybe this spicy dish will help you cool down too.

So here is the recipe...I am kind of guessing on the measurements...but it's cooking, not baking. So really, you can add whatever amount of tomatoes or garlic, or chili flakes you want.

Spicy Lemon Roasted Shrimp Rotini

Serves 4

• 1 lb of shrimp (about 32, 8 shrimps per person) peeled and deveined
  
• 5 tomatoes, diced (mine are from the garden so they are not as big as grocery store ones)
• 8 fresh basil leaves
• 1 lemon
  
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• Chili flakes
  
• Good olive oil
• 450 g of pasta
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, add the shrimp, half the lemon juice, half the garlic, a bit of salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil, about 2.5 tbsp. Sprinkle on the desired amount of chili flakes, you don't need a lot to make it spicy.
   
3. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl and place them on a sheet pan. Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes, or until it is pink with a bit of brown at the tips. Make sure you don't over cook the shrimp.
4. While the shrimp is baking, bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the rotini until al dente. Save some of the pasta water for the sauce.
   
5. For the sauce, heat up a pot to medium heat with about 2 tbsp of olive oil. When the pot is hot enough (throw in a piece of garlic, if it sizzles, it is ready) throw in the tomatoes, basil and the other half of the garlic. Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes then add in the other half of the lemon juice and a pinch of chili flakes. Also add in 1/4 cup of the pasta water. If you want to add more you can continue to do so till you get the consistency you prefer.
   
6. Cook the sauce for about 15 mintues and let it simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes.
7. Add in the pasta and shrimp to the sauce and toss together. Serve with Parmigiano- Reggiano freshly grated on top.

This photo shows one serving of shrimp.