Shrimp Pasta Primavera

This simple shrimp pasta primavera uses a mix of spring vegetables including asparagus, sugar snap peas, garden peas and spring onions. It’s a celebration of the season!

When we lived in Southeast Asia, the only asparagus we got in our local grocery stores was quite thin but they won my asparagus hating husband over. Turns out he had only ever been offered canned asparagus as a child and thought they were nasty. 

Fresh asparagus are completely different! In the States and in Jersey, Channel Islands, the asparagus are typically thick. The husband was unsure again but I’ve gradually won him over, especially when I cook them simply with a little butter and lemon. Or in a pasta dish like this Shrimp Pasta Primavera. 

Shrimp Pasta Primavera

If using fresh pasta instead of dried, cook 12 oz or 340g to serve four people. Regarding the peas: I prefer the frozen peas called petit pois because they are young and more tender, if you can find them. Do not, for love of all that is holy, use canned peas. This recipe is adapted from one on New York Times Cooking. 

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus plenty extra for the pasta boiling water

Freshly ground black pepper, more as needed

5 1/3 oz or 150g sugar snap peas

8 oz or 226g asparagus, ends snapped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup or 23g thinly sliced green onion, white part only

10 oz or 285g peeled, cleaned shrimp

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

9 oz or 255g fettuccine or tagliatelle

2/3 cup or 60g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, at room temperature

1/2 cup or 123g crème fraîche or sub whole milk Greek yogurt, at room temperature

1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon

3/4 cup or 113g frozen young peas, thawed

(To thaw the peas and cook them just enough at the same time, pour boiling water over them. When cool, drain the water and repeat. Drain again when cool and the peas are ready to add in at the end of the recipe.)

Optional garnish: tender pea sprouts

Method

Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over medium-high heat.

While the water is coming to a boil, string and slice snap peas diagonally.

Trim the asparagus tips off, leaving them whole. Slice the asparagus stems into ¼-inch-thick lengths, also on the diagonal. 

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add snap peas, asparagus and green onions. 

Cook until the vegetables just start to soften, then add the shrimp. 

Cook for 3-4 minutes until the shrimp are pink throughout. 

Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more. 

Season with the salt and a few generous grinds of black pepper; set aside.

Drop the pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente (1 to 3 minutes for fresh pasta, according to the manufacturer’s instructions for dried pasta.)

Drain well and transfer pasta to a large bowl. Immediately toss the pasta with the shrimp and vegetables. Mix well. 

Add in the Parmigiano-Reggiano, crème fraiche, tarragon and peas and stir well. 

Season generously with more salt and pepper, if needed.

Return to your warm pasta pot, garnish with pea sprouts, if using, and serve immediately.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and since spring has sprung, we are sharing recipes with asparagus and I am hosting! Check out all the links below. 

• Asparagus Farro from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Asparagus Three Ways from Our Good Life
• Macaroni and Cheese with Asparagus and Prosciutto from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shrimp Pasta Primavera from Food Lust People Love
• Spring Risotto Topped with Shaved Asparagus from Culinary Cam
• Stir Fried Chickpeas and Asparagus from Amy's Cooking Adventures

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Personal Mini Ravioli Lasagnas

Made with cheese and asparagus filled ravioli, Bolognese sauce and cheese sauce, these personal mini ravioli lasagnas are delicious and fun to feed a small party. 

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that I love baking muffins. For several years I created and published a Muffin Monday post every single week. Nowadays, we celebrate Muffin Monday on the last day of the month so that’s still a minimum of 12 new muffin recipes each year. 

That said, I don’t often use the muffin pans for much of anything else. Which is a pity. Enter our Sunday FunDay host for today, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures with a fun theme which will change that: Main dish in a muffin tin! 

I put my thinking cap on and initially decided to make my mother’s goulash, basically Bolognese sauce with macaroni and perhaps some added cheese that I could bake in the muffin tin. But would that REALLY be making a main course in a muffin tin or just rewarming it? 

I figured I needed something just a little more complicated to rise to Amy’s challenge. And sure, I could have cooked lasagna noodles and made actual little lasagnas with more layers just like a big one but the filled ravioli add extra flavor. 

My muffin pan has nine holes so I used 18 fresh ravioli. Fortunately the bag I bought had 18 good ones and one broken one which I discarded. As I mention below, you’ll have plenty of meat sauce. If your muffin tin has more holes, by all means make a little more cheese sauce and buy more ravioli. It’s all good. 

Personal Mini Ravioli Lasagnas

This recipe starts with my traditional Bolognese recipe which make about 4 1/2 cups or 1130g of sauce. You will have about 1 1/2 cups or 365g leftover but trust me when I say that you won’t regret it. It’s rich, delicious sauce that is great with any type of pasta. It also freezes well. 

Ingredients

For the meat sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for the pan

1 lb or 450g ground beef or pork (or half and half)

3 cloves garlic

1 medium yellow onion

1 can (14 oz or 400g) crushed tomatoes

1 can (6 oz or 170g) tomato paste

1 teaspoon Italian seasonings

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon baking soda

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the cheese sauce:

3/4 cup or 127g ricotta cheese

4 1/2  oz or 126g mozzarella

1 egg

For topping before baking:

1 oz or 28g Parmesan, freshly grated

1 oz or 28g mozzarella, grated

2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs

Several pinches Italian seasonings, if desired

18 fresh ravioli, preferably round ones for a better fit, filling of your choice

The ravioli I used: 

Method

In a large Dutch oven over a medium high heat, brown the ground meat in the olive oil, crumbling it into the smallest bits possible with a wooden spoon as you do. 

Meanwhile, mince the garlic and chop the onion. 

When the beef is nicely browned, even crunchy in places, turn the heat down and add in the garlic and onions. Cook until they are soft and translucent. 

Add in the canned tomatoes with any juice and another whole can of water. Stir in the tomato paste. Add the Italian seasoning and tuck the bay leaf into the sauce. 

Bring to the boil, then lower the heat. Simmer the sauce, covered, for about 1 hour. 

Discard the bay leaf. Stir in the baking soda. 

This helps neutralize some of the acid in the tomatoes, making the sauce a bit sweeter. Season to your liking with the salt and pepper. Set the sauce aside to cool.

Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce by mixing together the ricotta, mozzarella and egg. Season with a few generous grinds of black pepper. 

Cut squares of nonstick baking parchment to tuck into your muffin pan and crumple them up. This will make them easier to shape into the pan. 

Trim some of the excess off but leave enough overhang so you can remove the mini lasagnas easily once cooked. 

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Spoon 2 tablespoons of meat sauce into each lined muffin cup. Top with 1 ravioli.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of meat sauce on top. Add 1 tablespoon of cheese sauce.

Top with the second ravioli. 

Add 2 tablespoons of meat sauce. 

Divide the remaining cheese sauce between the mini lasagnas. 

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients together and divide them between the mini lasagnas. Finish with a few pinches of Italian seasonings, if desired. 

Pop the muffin tin in your preheated oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through if, like mine, your oven doesn’t heat evenly.

Remove from the oven and put the muffin pan on a wire rack. Leave to cool for about five minutes and then carefully lift each mini lasagna out by its parchment liner. 

Use a small spatula to return any sauce on the parchment to the sides of the lasagna.

 

Serve warm or hot. 

We ate two each as a main course, befitting the theme, but these would also be great as a starter with a small side salad, as pictured.

Enjoy!

As I mentioned above, it's Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing main course recipes that can be make in a muffin tin. Many thanks to Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures for the challenge. Check out the links below. 

• Bacon Cheeseburger Cups by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Personal Mini Ravioli Lasagnas by Food Lust People Love
• Pizza Cups by Our Good Life
• Poke Cups by Culinary Cam
• Savory Chicken Muffins For Two by Sneha's Recipe
• Sloppy Joe Cups by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Teriyaki Chicken Cups by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tuna Noodle Casserole Cups by Palatable Pastime

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Crab Rangoon Ravioli

Fresh sheets of egg pasta filled with crabmeat, cream cheese, chives and garlic make the most succulent crab Rangoon ravioli! Serve simply buttered or with the sauce of your choice.  

We don’t eat out very often since I love to cook and my husband has gotten pretty good at it himself, since he started taking turns during the recent pandemic. One place we do like to go is a Chinese buffet that has wonderful sticky ribs and crispy shell on shrimp. It also serves my late sister's favorite, crab Rangoon, crunchy deep-fried wonton wrappers filled with cream cheese and crab. 

Crab and cream cheese are a delightful mixture but I'm not big on deep frying at home so when I had leftover crab a while back filling ravioli to boil seemed like much a better idea.

This is a dish that takes time to make but homemade ravioli dough is so worth it. And the filling is super easy to make! It’s special enough for either the main course at an intimate dinner party, or like fancy Italian restaurants do, you can serve just three or four per person in shallow bowls, as your starter. 

Crab Rangoon Ravioli

This recipe makes about 24 ravioli but is easily doubled. After making and filling the ravioli, any scraps of pasta can be cut into noodles and refrigerated to be boiled for another dish, another day. I used my leftovers in a stir-fry. This recipe was adapted from one on Thailand 1 Dollar Meals.

Ingredients  

For the egg pasta dough:

1 1/2 - 1 2/3 cups or 187.5- 208g tipo 00 flour (plus extra for rolling out the pasta)

1 egg 

1 egg yolk (save white for filling)

2 teaspoons olive oil 

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the filling:

Small bunch chives

1 clove garlic

4 3/4 oz or 135g cream cheese

3/4 cup, lightly packed, or 130g crabmeat

1 egg white (saved from making the egg dough)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

For serving:

Pasta sauce of your choice or simply melted butter and garlic

Parmesan cheese, grated

Extra chives for garnish

Crushed red pepper (optional)

Method

In large bowl, combine 3/4 cup or 94g flour, 1/4 cup or 60ml water and remaining dough ingredients. With mixer at slow speed, beat for two minutes, occasionally scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Using a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. I start with half and go from there. You may not use it all. 

Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Wrap in cling film and let stand at least 30 minutes. (After the 30 minutes, refrigerate the dough if you aren’t ready to assemble your ravioli yet.) 

While the dough rests, we can get on to the ravioli filling. It couldn’t be simpler. 

Finely chop the chives and mince the garlic. 

Mix all the ingredients together well in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Once the dough has rested, cut it in four equal pieces and remove one. Wrap the rest of the dough again with the cling film.

Flour the dough ball well and use a rolling pin or a pasta roller to roll it out quite thinly to the size of your ravioli plaque. Check out my original ravioli post to see my roller in action.

Flour your ravioli plaque liberally and lay the sheet of pasta on top. Fill each hole with about a teaspoon of the filling.

Using the second quarter of the dough and, following the same instructions, roll it out to the size of your ravioli plaque.

Use a pastry brush to wet the pasta on the plaque between the spoons of filling.

Carefully, starting at one end, lay the second sheet of pasta on top of the filled one, sticking the two sheets together and pressing out the air as you go along.

Turn the ravioli plaque over and let the filled pasta drop out onto your countertop. If it sticks, just gently pry it off.

Trim the ravioli around the edges and cut them apart.

Set them aside on a plate lined with cling film that has been well floured.

Continue the process until all the ravioli are rolled out, filled and cut apart. I put another layer of cling film and flour again with each layer of ravioli.

The ravioli should be stored in the refrigerator, covered with cling film until you are ready to boil them.

When you are ready to cook the ravioli, warm your sauce of choice or serve simply with some melted butter, perhaps with a little chopped garlic. 

When your sauce is simmering, if using, heat a pot of salted water to boiling. 

Add several ravioli at a time, using a slotted spoon being careful not to over-crowd the pot. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until tender.

Remove with a slotted spoon to the pan with the warmed sauce. As you can see, I added mine to a pan with just butter and garlic. 

Stir gently to coat then spoon into plates or bowls to serve. Top with grated Parmesan, crushed red chili pepper and some chopped chives for garnish, if desired.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing dinner party dishes! Check out the links below. 

• Anti-Hero Appetizers from Culinary Cam
• Banana Cream Pie from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Black Eyed Peas Curry - Safed Lobia ka Salan from Sneha's Recipe
• Crab Rangoon Ravioli from Food Lust People Love
• Crockpot Pulled Pork with Ale from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Mini Chicken Tostada Appetizers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shrimp, Papaya and Pineapple Salad from Palatable Pastime

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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