Brother Devil Pasta

Last night I (successfully) tried a new recipe: Shrimp Fra Diavlo.

Apparently, “Fra Diavlo” is Italian for Brother Devil. I can only assume there is some sort of historical or biblical story that makes sense of why the creator of this dish chose “brother” as opposed to “sister.” If you had asked me, back in the day, I would have called it Sister Devil because my Seeester used to piss me off like no other. Especially when she would steal my underwear. And wear it!! I’m still irritated about that. But I like her a lot more now. She is pretty awesome. And she must have a good stash of her own underwear because she hasn’t taken any of mine in years.

Back to the pasta. This is seriously delicious. And honestly very easy to make. And healthy! And spicy! I love a good amount of heat in my food so I didn’t alter the recipe at all, but if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. (Ba dum bump!) Seriously, though, if you’re not a fan of spice you can reduce the amount of red pepper flakes. But I’ll be honest with you, the whole point of this pasta is that its spicy. So, if you don’t like spice, stop reading here.

If you like spice, make this pasta!!! Here is the recipe from Cooking Light. And here is another photo of my dinner:

Also, while I’m on the topic of pasta, I’m going to give you a little tip that I learned in our pasta making class:

Salt, salt, salt your water! Salt the piss out of it!

I don’t know why, but I never added that much salt in the past. And when I did add salt, it was when I put the pot on the stove thinking it was going to help me reach boiling point sooner. It does help the water heat up quickly (at least I think so) but, more importantly, it flavors your pasta. When we asked Chef Hogan how much salt we should use, he said “Lidia (Bastianich) says your pasta water should taste like the Mediterranean Sea.”

I’ve never tasted the Mediterranean Sea, but I’ve been slapped in the mouth with ocean water before and its very salty. So, I’ve been adding a lot of salt to my water right before I put my pasta in to cook. And it tastes so good. There you go. Now you know and now your pasta will taste even better than it did before. You are welcome.