A date night winner! Upgrade your run-of-the mill pasta aglio e olio by infusing the oil with shrimp shells for a seafood forward flavour.

Time: 4/5
Mostly passive time, because you’re waiting for the salmon to slow cook

Effort: 3/5
The hardest part was to make space in the freezer to keep the shrimp shells

Call EOD Because This Is The Bomb

Sorry for the cheesy headline, but this is seriously the best date night pasta I’ve ever made. And I’ve had plenty of successes before – the visually stunning garlic butter lobster pasta and the rich and savoury crab, truffle and Parmesan pasta, to name a few.

This is a great example of how home cooking is a superpower. Having the skill and confidence to host date nights at home wins you brownie points, keeps money in your pocket, and saves the planet.

By hanging on to bits and bobs, you can upcycle what used to be waste into new and exciting meals. Like hanging on to dried shiitake stems for making soup, or bringing home leftover crepes to make bananas foster crepe bites. 

In the same spirit, I save the shells whenever I’m peeling shrimp – like for these fancy cocktail shrimp on crackers. Having the shrimp shells on hand let me put a twist on the classic spaghetti aglio e olio. Sautéing the shells infuses the oil with delicious shrimp flavour, and it just. Hits. Different.

Pairing it with sous vide salmon was a natural choice to keep the seafood theme going, and having some protein in a meal is always a good idea. Add a side salad, maybe a make-ahead soup, and you’re looking at a date night home run. Out of all my recipes that are not for rice, I genuinely hope you give this one a try the most.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 1

Dramatis Personae

Served 2.

For the pasta

Shrimp shells, from 1/2lb of shrimp

Cooked shells still have flavour, but the vibrancy and the depth, the shrimpiness (is that a thing?) pales in comparison to raw shells. You want to get raw shells in the freezer as soon as you can though, or it will stink up your kitchen! Also remember to wrap well with clingfilm, to keep the air out and prevent freezer burn.

150g pasta

A conservative serving size for two, but we are small people and we’re having this with salmon and salad. I used mini pasta shells because I think it will hold on to the flavourful oil better than other shapes. I also wanted something we could eat with a spoon (and to be honest, it was on sale and that’s a big part of my decision process). But nothing stops you from using any shape you have.

2 tbsp pasta water

Or, however much you need to emulsify the oil into a sauce. I tend to use as little water as possible when boiling my pasta so the pasta water is as starchy as possible. This lets me use as little of the past water as possible, which is important because it limits the amount of salt in the final product.

8 tbsp olive oil

This is maybe four times the amount I would usually use, but it’s a primary ingredient in the pasta sauce. And having a generous amount of oil helps extract the maximum amount of flavour from the shrimp shells. Then again, it’s maybe half of what other blogs recommend, but that entails more cardio than I am willing to do in consequence. Make your own judgment here.

I use extra virgin olive oil, but that’s only because I don’t use olive oil often and it’s the only type I bother to keep. A lot of the more delicate aromas are going to be cooked off, so don’t use your super fancy olive oil for this.

Few cloves of garlic

Thinly sliced, to maximise the surface area to volume ratio and extract the most flavour possible while being less likely to burn than finely minced garlic. Plus it’s less knife work, which is always a plus.

Lemon juice to taste

It’s more important than you think to balance out the richness of the olive oil with a bit of acid, especially as the list of ingredients is so short. Go for freshly squeezed lemon juice if you can justify buying fresh lemons, but I don’t cook with lemons often enough so I consign myself to using the bottled stuff, and that is good enough (which should be the war cry of every home cook, come to think of it).

Chilli flakes to taste

Optional, although I think a bit of heat goes a long way to giving the shrimpy flavour some additional depth. I like to only add a tiny bit of dried chili flakes, only enough to get a hint of spiciness .

Salt and pepper to taste

Watch the salt. Depending on how much you salted the pasta water, you may not need any salt at all!

For the salmon 

2x 140g salmon filets

0.5 tsp mixed dried herbs

Lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste

Choose the thickest pieces of salmon you can get, to really show off the texture of cooking them sous vide. I like the fish barely flaking, so I cooked for an hour at 46C/115F (referring to the temperature chart by Kenji). Straight from frozen, because that way I don’t need to deal with floppy flesh and raw fish juices. It’s so much easier this way, just like with chicken.

As for the dried herbs, they were a spur of the moment addition. I don’t think it did anything significant to the taste, but it’s here for completeness. What did make a difference, however, was crisping up the skin with a kitchen torch. Just like with teriyaki chicken, the kitchen torch is a super handy tool for creating smoky roasty flavours in a small apartment kitchen without having a proper grill.

Executive summary

1. Sous vide salmon pieces for 1 hour at 46C/115F
2. Bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions.
3. Drain the pasta, saving some pasta water.
4. Put olive oil in the pan on medium-low heat. Once hot, sauté shrimp shells until fragrant, then discard the shells.
5. In the same pan, add dried chili flakes and garlic and sweat briefly, until aromatic. Switch off the heat.
6. Add the pasta, pasta water, lemon juice and herbs. Stir until well combined.
7. Top pasta with the salmon, and lightly torch the salmon skin.
8. Garnish with more herbs and lemon juice. Serve hot.

Play by Play

Last things first. This big side of salmon was on sale, so all I had to do was to cut it in half to make my own filets at a fraction of the cost. It’s not as good as a thick cross-cut steak section, but let’s call tonight a casual date night instead and pocket the change.

Some cleanup and chores later, it’s time to do some prep. The salmon has been in the sous vide for 30 minutes at this point, so the pasta should be done at about the same time if I start now.

Six and a half minutes is about right for cooking small pasta shells and macaroni to al dente. Your mileage may vary – always refer to package instructions.

Here’s a neat trick: I drain the pasta in a colander above a bowl, so the pasta water collects at the bottom. It can sit there in the sink where I will dip into it with a ladle.

Time to make the kitchen smell wonderful. Shrimp shells, then garlic and chili flakes get a sizzle until aromatic. If you’re not hungry yet, you will be now!

Pasta in, plus some pasta water. Toss to coat. Lemon juice goes in now too.

A view of the end result: a thick sauce that leaves trails.

Salmon is super tender, but lacking in colour. Kinda looks floppy and sad at the moment, but we’re going to change that soon.

Flame on! Pat the skin dry with a paper towel beforehand so he skin browns even better. Make quick passes over the skim until it blisters.

Always eat your veggies! I had some leftover Indian lettuce and XO sauce stir fry in the fridge.

I don’t know where to start describing the taste of the dish! The fish is delicate, barely flaky and incredibly moist. The pasta is pleasantly chewy, and coated with a deep and complex sauce.

The first tasting note is the shrimpiness, then the savouriness of the garlic, which is then rounded out by the hint of spice. And some pieces catch a bit of char from the kitchen torch too – an absolutely delightful bite of food.

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