Croxetti & Shrimp

First of all, I'm very happy and honored to have been asked by my cousin to contribute to her blog. She is doing such an amazing job of keeping it updated with great recipes and information. Since I'm into photography, I wanted to start doing more food photography, and this just seemed like an excellent opportunity not only to share recipes but also other information that I find interesting. For my first recipe, I will be presenting a dish called croxetti & shrimp. You may be asking yourself what croxetti is. Croxetti is a flat coin-shaped pasta that is stamped by hand with cool and interesting patterns. Below is a photo. Please click on it to enlarge.


I came across croxetti while in an Italian food market in NYC, and I thought it was interesting. I wanted to share a recipe that was not only tasty but one that was easy enough to allow you to switch the ingredients if you so wished. I found very few recipes for croxetti online, so I came up with my own original recipe and decided to throw in some ingredients that I thought would taste good together. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients
2/3 lb bag of croxetti pasta (if you cannot find an Italian market, you can buy it online either here or here )
1/4 lb porcini mushrooms
1 jalapeno, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh oregano
8 oz gulf shrimp
freshly shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese or trentingrana
extra virgin olive oil for cooking

Directions

Mince the garlic and the jalapeno pepper while the pasta cooks (about 10 minutes). Heat several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a wok, or deep nonstick pan and sauté the garlic and jalapeno pepper until the garlic begins to brown. Wash the mushrooms, and cut them into thin (~1 cm) strips. Add them to the hot oil and cook, while stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and oregano. When the shrimp turns pink in color, toss with the drained pasta and serve hot with a sprinkle of shaved parmesan cheese. Here is the end result:


Be sure that if the pasta is ready before the rest of the ingredients to leave it in the water while the rest of the ingredients finish cooking. I made the mistake of draining the water a little too early and the pasta disks started to stick together. You could probably even add a little extra olive oil right after combining all the ingredients if you feel it is too dry.

To add heat to the dish, I decided that the chopped jalapeno would be perfect. The Mexican in me wanted some spiciness! :-) However, you can also use other peppers, like habanero or poblano. You can also substitute the croxetti of course if you cannot find it, with another pasta. Linguini or Fettucini may be some good options.

I really hope you guys try this recipe and enjoy it. I will be back soon with more recipes and blog posts. And, more pictures! Hasta la proxima! :-)

~ Tony V.