So...
Shrimp wasn't in the plan, but at the store there was a major sale, and the shrimp looked and smelled great... So shrimp it was!
When we got home, I realized there was some prosciutto that my friend Nick had brought over and that needed to be used. The yard is wildly, gloriously overrun with sage... Hmmmmmmm...
After a bit of thought I decided on a creamy pasta sauce with sage, shrimp and prosciutto. Not necessarily in that order.
I lightly sautéed 4 minced garlic cloves in EVOO, added 5-6 minced sage leaves, the remaining half of the season's first habanero (minced very fine), and let all of that soften a bit. After a splash of dry white wine, I raised the heat, and reduced it.
In went about 1/3 C cream and some chopped prosciutto (as much as your budget allows... up to about 1/3 C) and took the pan off the heat. In another pan I sautéed the shrimp in EVOO, smoked salt, and pepper until not quite cooked (about 1 minute per side) and set them aside to cool.
Next I boiled some linguine, until about 3/4 cooked... added it to the sauce in the pan and turned the heat back on... and put in a few splashes of pasta water when it looked too thick. At this point, I also added the shrimp, to reheat and finish cooking, but... always remember... there are few things less tasty than overcooked shrimp!
I plated, scattering some toasted breadcrumbs on top and then a judicious sprinkling of fresh chopped sage. You can skip this step if you aren't the sage fanatics we are, but when the raw sage hits that hot pasta... Mmmmmm.
I am not one of those doctrinaire cooks who refuses to add cheese to seafood. But in this case, breadcrumbs, "the poor man's Parmesan," is all you need.
And just for the record: this is a rich dish. So we ate only a few shrimp apiece, which kept the cost at about $1.75 worth of shrimp per person! And I have the other half in the fridge...
Just waiting...