Garlic and Shrimp Pasta Salad

This is very simple, very basic, but absolutely divine recipe.  My Uncle Dave made this for me a couple summers back and I have been hooked ever since!  There are very few ingredients, but it is a good thing because all the flavors aren't fighting against one another.  Each ingredient really gets to shine! 

What You Need:

• 1 lbs pasta (I like bow ties, but whatever pasta you like in your pasta salad is fine)
• 1 lbs shrimp
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1-2 tbs lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Start by boiling a large pot of salted water for the pasta.  Cook the pasta according to the package till al dente.  Make sure to try your pasta before draining it!  I did not and it was undercooked so I had to bring another pot of water up to a boil...big foul!

When the pasta is done, immediately shock it with cold water!  This will stop the cooking process and taking all the starchiness (real word or not?) out of the pasta.  Then you can set it aside in a large bowl while you prepare everything else.

Take the leafy part of the parsley off of the stems.  You want about 1/4-1//2 cup.

Mince.  The best way to do this is to roll your herbs to look like a cigar and start and one end and chop.  Fighting with one leaf at time is no beuno

If you are using frozen shrimp (like I did) you can either defrost it by letting it sit in the fridge over night or by running COLD water over them.  It takes about 10 minutes to defrost if you are doing the cold water method.

If you are using large shrimp cut in half or into thirds depending on how large the shrimp is. 

You can do the garlic two ways.  You can either dice it very finely or do what I did... 

I put the garlic into my magic bullet with the olive oil and pureed it until all the garlic is incorporated into the oil. 

Beware of large chucks that might have managed to escape the blade!  If someone bites into a huge chuck of garlic, they might disown you as a friend!

Combine the pasta and the shrimp.  Make sure the pasta is completely drained before adding anything!

Add in the garlic and olive oil.

Salt and pepper generously.

Add in the parsley...

and the lemon...

and give a good stir to combine all of the ingredients.

Let chill in the fridge to let the flavors mingle and then you will be ready to eat!  Do give it a taste test before you serve it.  I had trouble getting enough salt in there, but remember you can always add more, but you can't take it back out after it is in!

Enjoy!