Just imagine: You’re about to take your first bite out of a steaming hot bowl of pasta.
The shrimp on top smells delicious. The seasoning level seems just right. You’ve done everything you can to follow the recipe step by step, paying attention to measuring everything just right.
After all, the directions on the recipe said to essentially just combine everything in a casserole dish. The only thing that could possibly go wrong is adding too much spice.
And then, coming from the mouth in the seat next to you, you hear a sickening crunch.
The first time that I ever made this pasta recipe, my husband’s eyes bugged out of his head a bit after his first bite. He had hit a piece of completely undercooked rotini.
But surely, that was a fluke, right? After all, the piece I’d eaten to test the doneness had seemed almost perfect. How could the pasta be so underdone?
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Upon further inspection, about 60% of the pasta was still completely undercooked. And I was completely baffled. I understood that the recipe was designed for on-the-go cooks who didn’t want to make a big mess in the kitchen. It was a one-pot (or, strangely enough, one casserole dish) “dump dinner” meal.
But whoever had concocted this recipe hadn’t taken into account one simple fact: Undercooked pasta is inedible. Not that you can’t crunch through, but you really shouldn’t.
Hunter and I got a good laugh out of the crunchy pasta incident. I think it is one of the only times in our marriage I served him something that was truly bad. But, on double checking the recipe, we discovered it was simply wrong on the cook time.
I stirred all the remaining pasta in the pan, popped it back into the oven for another 10 minutes, and when I pulled it back out, it was edible this time.
But that got me thinking… were there other ways to make the recipe better? And how did I manage to stumble on an online recipe that just simply didn’t work at all?
Was their oven running hotter than mine? Did their rotini boil differently? Was I descending into madness?
I tinkered around with this pasta recipe in my kitchen. The simplest solution, in my mind, was just to boil the pasta before adding it to the dish.
But I wanted to stay true to the spirit of the recipe. One casserole dish. One meal. And for some reason, pasta only cooked in the oven.
I might be a glutton for punishment.
All that aside, I have been experimenting with this recipe and tinkering with it for a while, just on the principle of the thing. A recipe should work and be easy to follow. If it doesn’t, why is it there?
All that to say, I’ve made significant adaptations to this recipe, to create the perfect Alfredo Shrimp Scampi “dump dinner” in a casserole dish.
The last time I made it, it was completely different from my first attempt, with well-cooked noodles and a great balance of flavors.
I hope that means you don’t have a “crunching-into-rotini” incident in your own kitchens, and you get to enjoy a perfect bowl of pasta.
If you do make this recipe, please let me know. My husband is getting tired of trying my iterations, but I’m more than a little obsessed with getting this just right. I want to make sure no other family falls to the curse of the crunch ever again.
Oh, and that you have a truly delicious meal. Of course.
ALFREDO SHRIMP SCAMPI (IN A CASSEROLE DISH)
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into cubes, plus more for casserole dish
16 ounces rotini pasta
1 pound frozen peeled and deveined medium shrimp
2 1/2 cups of chicken broth (or however much is needed to fully cover pasta)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I bump it up even higher for my own personal flavor preferences)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
Directions
■ Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Generously grease bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish with butter.
■ Spread the rotini in the bottom of the prepared dish. Scatter the shrimp over the top and dot with cubes of butter. Pour in the broth, ensuring it fully covers the pasta. Then, sprinkle with red pepper flakes, garlic, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt and some black pepper.
■ Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 10 minutes, before checking and stirring the pasta. Then, recover and bake another 15-20 minutes until the pasta is al dente. (Mine took closer to 20 minutes, but make sure you check and stir before serving).
■ When the pasta is done baking, stir in the warm cream and top with Parmesan cheese to serve.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.