Linguine with Zucchini and Shrimp

Monday pasta

To: Roberto

Found this on La Cucina Italiana. What do you think?

Re: Monday pasta

To: Tracy

Looks like you forgot to include the link...

Re: Monday pasta

To: Roberto

Shoot. So much for a clear head from raw foods.

It was a recipe for pasta with zucchini and shrimp. The zucchini was sliced long and thin like you did with the mandolin last week.

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The forgotten link…

La Cucina Italiana "tossed" linguine

linguine al salto

...

I could feel a slight rush. Extracting myself from the sweltering second floor with Canon in hand. Rushing down the stairs to the cool kitchen. Popping the battery into the charger. Pulling the zucchini from the fridge. Pulling the knife from the drawer.

"I'm going to go sweep up, outside." He said.

"Okay, I'll get dinner going." I said.

The lettuce was rinsing. The heirloom cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and onion were sliced and waiting.

I cut off the ends of two medium zucchini and proceeded to whoa and be careful my way through the long slippery bodies. Slicing first into long quarters and then slicing the long quarters into matchstick-like strands.

...

"It was a mess out there." He said.

...

Roberto stood over the strands of zucchini gently cooking in the pan. "You can drop the pasta." He said.

"Did you salt the water." I asked.

"No." He said.

I pulled the lid off the pot of boiling water, rinsing it under cold water before retiring it to the draining rack. Roberto poured salt, first into his palm, then into the water.

I dropped the pasta, giving it a quick toss to prevent the strands from sticking.

"Can you slice off the end of a lemon?" He asked.

"Yep." I said.

I handed Roberto a third of a lemon.

"Is this good enough?" I asked.

"Yep." He said.

...

This second helping is even better than the first, I thought. All the extra pasta liquor from the pan saturating the leftover strands. That final grating of parmesan before the few remaining twirls of linguine enrobe the fork...