For those of you who don't know, I teach monthly Italian cooking classes at Casa Italia, a great little Italian market in Sarasota. It's a pretty cool gig. I get to do what I love and also get to meet lots of very nice people in the process.
When making up my class menus, I always try to include as many fresh, seasonal and local ingredients as possible. Lemon Linguine with Basil Pesto Shrimp is a good example. It's a lovely, springtime pasta dish filled with fresh Gulf shrimp that highlights the bright, lively flavors of lemon and basil. Plus, it’s super simple to make. This dish was on the menu at my class last week and it was a resounding success. My students loved it!
The dish has two main components: pasta bathed in lemon and olive oil, and a zesty, garlicky basil pesto sauce. Each is really nice on its own, but put them together and WOW! You can even make this recipe ahead and serve it chilled as a pasta salad. It doesn’t get much better than that!
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2010.