Fideo Verde Seco - Cappelini in Green Herb Sauce with Shrimp

 

Having been a home cook for more than 30 years, there are very few recipes that look new to me - but this one was quite the eye-opener. Pan frying dry pasta and then adding a flavorful broth and cooking it in a skillet was a revelation!

So full of flavor, so easy to make, and the variations set my mind awhirl!

Apparently fideo is a type of very thin pasta but I have never seen it. Here I used cappelini, and gluten free brown rice at that, and it worked beautifully!

I garnished this with cotija cheese since it pairs well with shrimp, but don't tell the Italians since they traditional abhor cheese with seafood.

Fideo Verde Seco - Cappelini in Green Herb Sauce with Shrimp (inspired by this article ) serves 2

6 oz cappelini pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 cups fish stock or other stock
1 cup fresh herbs - cilantro, parsley, mint

1/2 serrano pepper, chopped - remove seeds and white insides for less heat
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
cilantro for garnish
lime for garnish
cotija cheese for garnish or other hard grating cheese

Combine the herbs, serrano pepper, salt and the stock in a blender and puree until well mixed, set aside. Heat a skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, add a tablespoon of olive oil and break the pasta into 3 inch pieces into the skillet and stir to coat, 1-2 minutes. Add herb stock to the pasta and stir to combine. Bring the stock to a boil and then reduce heat to slow simmer. Stir once a minute for the next 5 minutes.

While pasta cooks, heat small skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add remaining olive oil and garlic and pinch of salt and cook 1-2 minutes until garlic begins to soften. Add shrimp and cook 1 minute, turning to cook the other side for 1 minute. Turn off heat and allow to rest.

Once all of the moisture is absorbed by the pasta, scrape the pasta into a bowl, being sure to scrape up all of the leftover herb bits from pan and toss pasta to fluff. Add garlic shrimp to top of pasta, squeeze lime juice over all and garnish with cilantro and cotija cheese as desired.

Hugs!