Shrimp with Pesto Penne Salad

Feeling a bit inspired today, I decided to make a cold pasta salad for dinner. H had informed me that we had a couple pounds of frozen shrimp on hand, and when at the produce shop yesterday, i wound up with the biggest bunch of basil - say that one three times fast - that would likely go bad before I used the thing up. Enter inspiration - why not a pesto sauce for the shrimp, make it earlier in the day, so when H gets home, the dinner is cool, and so is the kitchen. Ah, you say, H does not eat milk products, so what about pesto, then? Well, I searched high and low for a pesto recipe sans cheese, only to find one and realize that you just leave the damn cheese out, and then there you go.

I keep meaning to document my cooking fun in the manner of Paul the Feeder, but typically I'm all hot and sweaty and cranky from making a mess and tripping over the damn cats and the fact that we have the most retarded sink in the world - seriously, what is that point of a double sink if neither half is large enough to hold anything? - but I got lucky with this one. Since it is meant to be a cold salad, I was making it early enough that I would be chilled and relaxed myself by dinner time, but I would also have time to screw around with the camera and document it. Up above you'll see a rather arty shot, if I do say so myself. I even made a little video of the finished product so you can see how it turned out. And yes, that weird background noise is a cat purring - that would be Buster, chat numero zwei. He hasn't made a visual appearance here yet, so he may as well get to talk.



Shrimp with Pesto Penne Salad
1 pound (uncooked weight) penne, cooked, drained, chilled
1 c pesto (see below)
1 lb cooked, peeled, chilled shrimp (31-40 count okay)
splash red wine vinegar/white wine vinegar
1 pickling size cucumber, thinly sliced
1 lb asparagus, cut into 1" segments, blanched in salted water, drained, chilled
3 tomatoes, wedged (I prefer what they market as 'vine ripened tomatoes' here - usually they still have stems attached. Don't eat those.)
1 green pepper, seeded, loosely diced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tsp kosher salt

Pesto
1 cup basil leaves, packed tightly
1/2 packed cup flat leaf parsley, packed more loosely
1/4 cup pine nuts - roasting them is up to you
3 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt

1. For the pesto, take the above ingredients and run them through your food processor or blender. The yield for this should be 1 cup and pesto paste - exactly what you need.
2. Separately, cook, drain and chill the penne, shrimp (unless you are using frozen as I did) and asparagus. Don't overcook the asparagus, as it will get mushy.
3. In a large bowl, combine pesto with all other ingredients. Stir well, and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours if you can.
4. The use of vinegar, and which style, I would say is optional. I only added a little as most of the recipes I was using for input called for some. I put in so little I didn't notice its presence, and as such I think you could skip it altogether. I would also, next time, skip the cucumber, and perhaps add some other types of peppers, and maybe some mushrooms.
5. For the cheese eaters, sprinkle some Parmesan or Asiago into the individual's bowl.
6. Add bacon bits if you must, you philistines.