Culinary Math

Last year we got four little tarragon plants which we used from time to time throughout the summer. But they had an amazing growth spurt recently and were overflowing their pot. What to do? I needed some inspiration...


About the same time as the tarragon grew so large, we were in Seattle on our way to a wedding. On the day of the wedding, we had ample time to explore Seattle and opted to head directly to Pike Place Market.

Directly, that is, if you don't count our detour to Macrina Bakery for morning sustenance.

It is always frustrating for a foodie to travel to a culinary Mecca with no kitchen to play in. This was the case in Seattle. The hotel was nice, but...

So, when I saw all that glassy-eyed fresh fish, I could appreciate it only visually and then walk on. Such fresh mushrooms - porcini, even! – I could never carry home in good shape. Multi-colored cauliflowers could be no more than a mental snapshot. It was, as I said, so frustrating.

But then we came upon Papparadelle's... a dried pasta shop with dozens of pasta shapes and flavors. Being the aesthete I am, I immediately gravitated to the prettiest ones, and the ones I found most beautiful were the multi-colored orzo pastas. You will be seeing several of them here soon.

After choosing three varieties of orzo, I was about to check out when I saw what looked like small kelp leaves. They were beautiful! They were lemon parsley malfadine. Had to have those, too.

Malfadine are usually long, 3/4-inch wide noodles with a ruffled edge. Not sure how they got their name, but these malfadine from Papparadelle's are small leaflets of strongly lemon-scented noodles colored green by the parsley.

Even thought it was the orzo (orzi?) that first caught my eye, it was these lemon parsley malfadine that inspired today's post... Well, that and the overflowing tarragon plant.

I know tarragon is most often used in poultry preparations and in a Béarnaise sauce for beef. But I think about it most often when I want seafood or fish. And when I saw the malfadine, shrimp came to mind - the beautiful pink of the shrimp with the green of the pasta would be beautiful.

I did the math. Shrimp + Tarragon + Lemon + Malfadine = Perfection! So I made a simplified beurre blanc-style sauce using lots more lemon, then adding tarragon - it was delicious. I hope you think so, too.

Bon appétit!

~ David

Malfadine with Shrimp and Lemon-Tarragon Butter

4 ounces malfadine or other ridged pasta - campanelle or radiatore
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, peeled and diced
8 ounces large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons salt and then cook pasta until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add diced shallots and sauté until soft, but not brown. Add shrimp in one layer and cook for a minute or so until pink on one side. Turn and cook the other side for another minute. Remove shrimp from the pan and set aside.

Add lemon juice, wine, tarragon and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Add butter, one tablespoon at at time until melted and creamy.

Return shrimp to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add cooked and drained malfadine and stir to coat.

Divide among two heated bowls and top with a generous grinding of black pepper. Serve immediately.

Serves 2. This recipe can be doubled or quadrupled easily.

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