scialatielli ai gamberetti

This is perhaps one of my most successful attempts in the kitchen. Especially when I'm home in Chicago with my family, I never follow a recipe completely because sometimes I think it's annoying to measure everything and to keep looking at the recipe after every step. Plus, cooking is all about experimenting with what works for you and what doesn't!

I followed this recipe. Mario Batali is perhaps my favorite chef. I made some changes/modifications to this recipe. First of all, I didn't make my own pasta noodles because that's too much unnecessary work. I also didn't make basic marinara sauce prior.

1. Heated MORE than 6tbs of olive oil and 6 cloves of garlic (minced) in a wok. (My dad, who helped me cook this, likes to put a lot of olive oil in anything)
2. Added shallots (not in recipe, but we like shallots) and zucchini pieces. (I should've bought a bigger zucchini)
3. Added a lot of red chili flakes. (Recipe called for 1tsp, but we definitely added way more than that...pasta ended up being spicier than what Batali probably wanted, but it was spicy in a good way)
4. Added MORE than 1 cup of dry white wine (Recipe called for 1 cup, but my dad and I like to go overboard with alcohol when cooking haha)
5. Added 2 cans (28oz) of diced tomatoes. Added regular medium shrimp (about 1lb uncooked. I couldn't find rock shrimp at the grocery).

NOTE: So this is where I sort of messed up. Since I didn't make the basic tomato sauce prior to everything else, the sauce ended up being extremely soupy in the wok, so I had to keep it going on the stove for like half an hour until it reduced to about half of what it was upon adding the tomatoes.

6. During this reduction time, I added salt and pepper to taste, a tiny bit more red chili flakes, and probably a couple of tablespoons of SUGAR (Not in the recipe, but that was a good call by my Dad. It balanced the spiciness from the chili flakes).
7. When it reduced to a thicker and grainier texture, that's when it was time to finally add the spaghetti (used one box).
8. Chopped up a whole bunch of fresh parsley (i'm sure this ended up being at least a whole cup instead of 1/4cup) and mixed it in.

Using that much parsley really added a ton of GOOD flavor. I need to use more fresh parsley in my pasta from now on.

We made this when two of my cousins, aunt, and uncle came over for dinner a couple of days befor Christmas. Because of all the red and green in the pasta, it was good timing too haha. Everyone loved it, so I definitely have to make this pasta again.