Linguine with Tomato, Asparagus, Button Mushrooms & Baby Shrimp

Ahh, pasta. Pasta never fails to delight my belly. And this pasta, with all of its bright, summery and delicious mix-ins caused me to sit perched on my kitchen counter and eat it out of the serving bowl.

Well, just a bite or two. I made it for an evening of catching up with my good friend (and soon-to-be roomie!), Elizabeth.

I did not follow a preexisting recipe. I just trusted my gut and assembled a simple dish that I will most likely now be making weekly.

That's the spirit of this post. I want to encourage you all to go make something without a recipe. Start with a basic if you like, such as pasta or rice (or anthing else you enjoy that can have lots of varied ingredients added to it), and then, just start creating. In my experience these past few months in the kitchen, I have found that the best dishes are created when I do just that; create.

Recipes are good, and I follow them often. However, I am also beginning to see that there is a a fine line between someone who relies on recipes and someone who invents them: the former is a cook. (And there is certainly nothing wrong with that). But the latter, well the latter is someone quite special. He or she is a chef. An artist.

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To make Linguine with Tomato, Asparagus, Button Mushrooms & Baby Shrimp, you need:

-2/3 box (about 12 oz) Linguine pasta
-1/2 lb raw baby shrimp, peeled and deveined
-1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatos, halved
-1/2 cup white button mushrooms, chopped
-15-20 asparagus (heads only, not the stocks)
-2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
-salt
-pepper
-olive oil
-grated parmigiano cheese

Bring 8 cups of lightly salted water to a boil in a pasta pot. While you are waiting for the water to boil, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over low heat. Chop garlic and add to oil. Add shrimp (tail shells removed), mushrooms, asparagus heads and tomatos. Reduce heat to simmer. Once pasta water is boiling, add linguine. The pasta should cook for about 9 minutes. After about five minutes (or, when the pasta only has about 4-5 minutes left to cook), turn up the heat on your shrimp and vegetables skillet to high (from simmer) and add another few tablespoons of olive oil (be generous). Add salt and pepper to taste (I used a couple teaspoons of each). Sautee all ingredients, mixing frequently with spatulua. Tomatos may explode (this is fine...it adds great color!). Shrimp should look pink, mushrooms lightly browned and asparagus slightly darker green than when raw.

When pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot. Pour shrimp and vegetables over pasta and add another few tablespoons of olive oil. (Just FYI, when it comes to olive oil, salt and pepper when cooking, I don't really measure. I eyeball it. The measurements here are estimates of about what I think I added). Stir in 1/4 cup shredded parmigiano cheese and mix well. Serve immediately.(Serves 4).