Roasted Shrimp, Tomato, & Feta Pasta

Looks like a big pile of whatever here, but trust me... this was delicious!

Can I just take this first second to say how awesome you guys are?  Yeah.  You guys!  That come here, day in and day out.  Reading my blog.  Leaving me comments.  You. Guys. Are. AWESOME.

With that being said, I think I'm on absolute Cloud 9 right now.  Why?  Well, yesterday... I had a record-breaking day on the blog, pertaining to unique visits.  The old record was 600 visits in 1 day.  Now, 600 is a hell of a lot.  But yesterday... that was completely shattered!  I had over 1000 visits!  Way awesome in my book.  Yes, I know, a lot of you have that many visits in the matter of half a day on a regular basis... but I'll take my little achievements as they come!  So when that next mile-stone of breaking 1500 visits comes... you guys will be the first to know!

Okay, now to the good stuff.

This was a pretty darn delicious meal.  Packed with some of my favorite ingredients.  Shrimp.  Tomatoes.  Feta.  And to make it a complete meal, I boiled some quick egg noodles and called it a perfect pasta dish!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Ina Garten's "How Easy Is That?"

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 celery ribs, chopped
pinch of fennel seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup madeira wine
14 oz. can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon Pernod
salt and pepper, to taste
1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveiled - tails left on
5 oz. feta cheese crumbles
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon dried parsley
zest from 1 lemon
juice from 1 lemon
 dried egg noodles

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large, oven-proof skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil under medium high heat.  Add celery and fennel seeds.  Saute for about 6-8 minutes, or until celery is starting to soften. 

Add garlic and cook for about a minute.

Stir in madeira wine and bring to a boil.  Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until the liquid is half reduced.

Add diced tomatoes with their liquid, tomato paste, oregano, Pernod (this is a licorice-flavored alcohol that really brings out the "seafood" flavor in the shrimp!), salt, and pepper.  Simmer mixture for about 15 minutes.

Add shrimp to pan in an even layer, over the tomato sauce.  Sprinkle feta atop the shrimp.

In a small bowl, combine both bread crumbs, lemon zest, parsley, and remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Scatter bread crumb mixture over shrimp.

Place skillet in oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until shrimp are pink.  Squeeze lemon juice atop shrimp before serving.

About 5 minutes before shrimp are done, bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Add egg noodles (I love the kind from the Asian market because they cook in practically a minute!) and cook according to package directions.

Place a serving size amount of the egg noodles on each plate and top with tomato-shrimp mixture.

 This was definitely a delicious dinner.  Ina just serves the shrimp by itself with some crusty bread, but I thought the pasta really made it a solid dinner!  Give this a go if you're looking for something relatively quick for the weekday!  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday guys!