Herb Roasted Shrimp and Spaghetti

For those of you who know me, this may seem to be an unusual post.  If you don't know me well- let me explain.  I do not eat seafood.  At all.  Not because I have some ethical reasons for disliking seafood or anything like that.  On the contrary, I wish I did like it.  I know the health benefits of a good piece of fish vs. a ribeye.  I wish I could have made use of all the fresh salmon while I lived in the Pacific Northwest or the blue crabs from the Atlantic ocean while I lived on the east coast.  Trust me, I've sampled many types of seafood over the years.  It's all led me to one simple fact however, I just don't care to eat anything that ever lived in the water.

It's a shame really, Matt loves seafood and I wish I made it more often for him.  But honestly, all that means is that I would have to make two dinners and I'm only willing to do that on rare occasions.  When I do, it's usually shrimp because it's quick and I can come up with some easy variation of the same dinner for myself.  This time I made enough spaghetti for the whole family and while the shrimp were roasting (the easiest way ever to cook shrimp) I made a quick olive oil and garlic sauce for my own pasta.  Two dinners finished in about a half hour.  Not bad huh?

Herb Roasted Shrimp with Spaghetti
If you want to pump up the good-for-you-ness of this dinner you could use whole wheat pasta or even toss the shrimp and sauce over roasted spaghetti squash.

6 tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tsp grated lemon zest
cracked black pepper to taste
1 1/2 lbs medium sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 lb uncooked spaghetti

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. 

In a 9 x 13 in roasting pan, toss together the olive oil, garilc, rosemary, thyme, lemon zest and pepper.  Place the pan into the oven and roast until the herbs and garlic become fragrant (about 10 minutes).  In the meantime, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti.

Remove the pan from the oven and mix the shrimp in with the oil mixture.  Return to the oven and continue to cook until the shrimp have turned opaque and a rosy pink color.  The amount of time this will take depends on the size of the shrimp.  For smaller shrimp, this can take as few as 4 or 5 minutes, for larger shrimp about 7-8 minutes.  When the shrimp are cooked, remove the pan from the oven.

Remove the stems from the rosemary and thyme and discard.  Add in the lemon juice and spaghetti and toss all of the ingredients together.  Serve in bowls with lots of the sauce, a big slice of garlic bread for soaking up all of the juices, and a glass of white wine.  Then toast yourself for having such a tasty dinner on the table in such little time!