15 minute linguine with Shrimp and Black Garlic

A quick & delicious 15 minute linguine with Shrimp and Black Garlic.  I’ve been obsessed with black garlic recently.  So basically it’s fermented and tastes balsamicy, creamy, slightly sweet but slightly tart.  Gosh so many incredible flavours to mix with shrimp and a creamy pasta.  And it is a super quick recipe, and black garlic has antioxidants to help your body fight oxidative stress.  Who said pasta wasn’t good for you?

In comes garlic’s fermented sibling that is packed with antioxidants and helps your body fight oxidative stress.  SO what is oxidative stress exactly?  It’s basically an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in your body which leads to cell and tissue damage - this happens when we age.  So the body’s cells produce free radicals during metabolism.  These cells also produce antioxidants so when there’s a balance, the antioxidants basically neutralise these radicals.  When they’re in balance, the free radicals help fight off pathogens that cause infections but when there are more free radicals than antioxidants, they start causing damage to tissue, dan and proteins in your body which can lead to disease over time.  So it really really important to maintain this balance and we can do that through what’s in our control -our  diet and our lifestyle.

I try to use fresh pasta - you can find these in the fridge aisles in the supermarket - they’re just fresh and cook so so so fast so by the time you’re done with prepping the sauce, the pasta goes in and voila! If you want to make this veg, skip the shrimp and you can make it gluten free too by swapping the pasta out.  If you’ve got dairy free single cream and nutritional yeast, you can make that too! Enjoy!

Here’s what you’ll need

Serves: 2 | Prep: 5 mins | Cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 shallot, sliced

6 bulbs black garlic, chopped finely

150g shrimp

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 tablespoon butter, unsalted

1 cup cooking cream

1 cup reserved pasta water

3 cups cooked linguine, water reserved

1/2 cup parmesan, grated

Salt & black pepper to taste

Basil to serve

Step One: In a skillet, heat the olive oil over a medium heat and add shallots.  sauté for 5 minutes till slightly brown and add black garlic, continuing to sauté for 2 minutes.

Step Two: Add shrimp and cook for 2 minutes, adding freshly ground salt and black pepper and butter.  Add cream, linguine and parmesan and stir.  Add reserved water to desired consistency.  Top with basil, parmesan, salt, black pepper and serve.