Shrimp Pasta Salad

There's nothing quite like a good pasta salad. Especially on a hot day! We've had a few hot days this month and I jumped at the opportunity to make this taste treat!

Boil your pasta in some heavily salted water. You know I'm talking 2 teaspoons of salt in a half gallon of water! Otherwise you really are going to have to let your salad set in the fridge 24 hours to get some flavor in those noodles. What type of threshold do you have for self denial? Mine is low and my thighs attest to that.

I'm using elbow noodles since it's what I have on hand. I really prefer rotini pasta in a salad like this. Cook 'em until they're done to the tenderness you like in a pasta salad. I like mine a little chewy! Then drain them and rinse them with some cold water. It'll stop the cooking process.

Now embarrassingly enough I drained my noodles and when I checked them I discovered several were less than done! So I rinsed them with a little more water a couple of times while I was preparing the other ingredients. They soaked up enough excess water they were fine by the time I put them in the salad.

Now to make a really tasty dressing we need to get some good shrimp flavor going. One way is to make shrimp stock. Of course that requires you cook your shrimp from scratch! I'm going to assume you've got some frozen precooked shrimp. Thaw them out and pinch their tails off. You don't want tails in your pasta salad do you? Put the tails in a little dish. We'll use them in a minute. Stow your shrimp in the refrigerator.

We're going to base our dressing on this. There's a cup of clam "juice" in here and you want to boil it down to half a cup. So put it in a pan and start it boiling. How long it'll take depends on how high you turn the heat up and how big a pan you use!

I had some frozen artichoke hearts I wanted to use in the salad so I actually threw them in the broth to thaw out. Mmm! After they were cooked a little I picked them out and added . . .

The lemon, a little garlic and a bay leaf. They'll give good flavor to the dressing. You should also add the shrimp tails at this point. If you thawed your shrimp in the bag like it recommends on most packages you can even throw that liquid in here. Bring it to a boil!

Strain it after its reduced to around half a cup. (You'll have the smallest bit covering the bottom of the pan.)

You'll need a half cup of mayonnaise! Isn't it pretty? I just want to eat a big spoonful right now!

I threw in a couple of green onions. I mixed them up and let them sit in the mayonnaise for a minute or two while I was boiling down the juice.

Mix your stock and your mayonnaise together!

I added a little celery seed because I was out of actual celery! I love real celery in this dish. If I had known I was out of celery I would of added the seed to the broth while I was boiling it!

Taste it and add salt and pepper as you like it. I obviously like it peppery! Now if I had it on hand I would of added some Old Bay seasoning at this point.

This is what's going in the salad! Look at the disproportionate sizes! This is why I prefer rotini! Oh well nothing a knife can't fix.

That's better!

My ingredients were all a little too pastel and savory for me so I decided to add some raw bell pepper chunks. For crisp sweetness! I like a little texture in my salads.

Toss it all together to chill! Garnish with a little chopped parsley if you like! This is so light and refreshing! The shrimp is briny and meaty. The pasta has a nice chew to it. The artichokes are rich and tender. The red pepper adds a crisp sweetness. Parsley has a herbaceous bitterness I crave in all things.The mayonnaise is where it's at though! It has all the seafood flavor in it and the lovely tang that mayonnaise is known for. If you like serve this salad with a lemon wedge so guests can amp up the acid right at the table!

This salad is delicious with celery and peas in it too! Which I hear normal people have laying around their refrigerator and freezer . . .

Shrimp Pasta Salad

1 lb cooked shrimp, shelled
8 oz. frozen artichoke hearts
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 lb cooked pasta, macaroni, rotini, or shells

For dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2-3 large green onions, sliced
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 cup shrimp stock
salt and pepper

For shrimp stock

1 8 oz bottle clam juice
tails from shrimp
1/2 lemon sliced
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf

Make shrimp stock. You can poach your artichoke hearts in the stock if you're including them in the recipe. Stir dressing ingredients together. Chop shrimp and artichokes as necessary to make salad ingredients similar in size. Mix dressing and salad together and enjoy. Refrigerate for an hour for best results.