Shrimp in Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce with Pasta

Pasta

The dish has a pronounced cheese flavor, so the cheese matters. The best cheese for the sauce is Gorgonzola. If you don’t have much choice, use Danablu, Bleu d’Auvergne or other French blue cheeses, with the rind cut off. Use medium-fat cream, and of course real cream. Buy large, already cooked shrimp: they are a coral-red color.

1. Cook the pasta. Put a pot with 2 l of water and 10 g of salt on high heat (the cheese in the sauce is salty, so 5 g per 1 l). When the water boils, add the pasta and cook it for the time given on the package. The manufacturer guarantees al dente in that time.

Creamy sauce

2. Melt the butter in the skillet and pour in the cream. Stirring constantly, heat the cream over medium heat until it boils.

   

3. Melt the cheese into the cream. If the cheese has a white rind, cut it off. By the way, I think it is the tastiest part of the cheese. Grate the cheese so it blends with the cream better, and add it to the boiling cream in the skillet. Season the sauce with ground black pepper. Over low heat, stirring, melt the cheese into the cream until you get a completely smooth mixture. You can add other spices to taste. Don’t add salt, as the cheese usually gives plenty of saltiness.

   

Shrimp and pasta

4. Warm up and peel the shrimp. Just put them in a bowl and cover with hot water from a kettle. After 4-5 mins drain the water and peel the shrimp, leaving only the meat from the tail.

5. Cook the tails in the sauce. Add the tails to the boiling sauce, stir, and cook covered over low heat for 1.5-2 mins. No longer, because seafood tends to turn rubbery.

   

6. Combine the pasta with the sauce. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander. Transfer it to a deep bowl, pour the creamy sauce with the shrimp over it and toss.

   

Serving

7. Divide the dish between plates and sprinkle with Parmesan. The pasta needs no special decoration. You can put a whole shrimp on top. A little Parmesan in shavings is a must, though: it is both tasty and pretty.

   

   Serve the pasta while it is hot. The dish is very delicate and is great for breakfast. If you like, make more sauce, but keep in mind that it is quite high in calories. By the way, more black pepper also improves the flavor, so you can try that.

   You can add herbs typical of Italian cooking to the sauce, if you like. Somewhere I came across adding anise to the sauce, meaning a little strong liquor with an anise flavor. For a thinner sauce, you can add fish stock.