Cleaning Out the Freezer

Today was one of those days where I didn’t have much fresh food in the house to eat, but I didn’t feel like going shopping. So instead, I had to figure out what I could make for dinner from what I had on hand.

I found 5 tomatoes in the freezer from last year’s harvest (I just freeze them whole, then defrost them for sauces throughout the year). Usually they’re gone much sooner, but these managed to get overlooked. Oops.

I also had some cooked, frozen shrimp on hand. That made an easy decision – shrimp in a tomato sauce, over pasta.

I defrosted the tomatoes in the microwave, at which time it was easy to rip off the skins and discard the liquid, leaving just the tomato pulp. Meanwhile, I defrosted the shrimp under cold, running water, and looked for other things to add to the mix.

This is what I came up with – and boy, was it a winner!

Shrimp ala Freezer

5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced (mine were frozen and defrosted)
1 lb. cooked shrimp (frozen, defrosted)
olive oil
1 or 2 ribs of celery, minced
3 or 4 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp minced garlic (or more, if you’re really into garlic)
fresh tarragon, chopped (I didn’t measure – maybe 1 1/2 to 2 tsp?)
fresh basil, chopped (about the same amount)
salt to taste – not a lot, maybe 1/4 tsp, but add to your taste
8 oz linguine, cooked
feta cheese

First I sauteed the celery in a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil. When they were pretty soft, I added the sliced mushrooms and continued cooking until the mushrooms were soft. Then I added the garlic and stirred for a minute. Then I threw in the tomatoes, tarragon, basil, and salt.

If you don’t have fresh herbs, try starting with 1/2 tsp dried.

Simmer the sauce, uncovered, while you cook the pasta.

About 5 minutes before the pasta was ready, I threw the cooked shrimp into the sauce to heat.

To serve, top pasta with sauce, and then sprinkle on some feta cheese.

Note: I had some Ouzo standing by to add to the sauce if necessary, but the fresh tarragon gave the sauce plenty of flavor by itself, so I skipped it. But just so you know – adding a bit of Ouzo or Sambuca to a tomato sauce is excellent with shrimp. As is the tarragon.

This was expected to serve 4. However, it was so damn good we ate it all.

We had a bottle of Honig Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (about $13) in the fridge, which turned out to be an absolutely perfect pairing. This was the first time we’d tried this wine, but I’m definitely going back to the wine store to see if they still have it. It just happened to be what we had chilled, but I don’t think we could have picked a more suitable wine.