I’ve been taking a lot of shortcuts recently. Life has been extra busy, and I notice that my grocery runs are more to the corner store with scant selection than across town where I can knock out more of my list. Lately, in fact, I haven’t even had a list. Only the corners of the kitchen counters are clean, as I’ve merely shuffled clutter around to reach what I need in the moment. I’ve been in such a hurry that I even yank my sneakers off while they’re still tied— a move that, naturally, costs me extra time later. 

Why am I in such a rush, you wonder? Well, her!

After 14 months without a dog in the house, my husband and I have adopted this beautiful creature as the newest member of our family, and it has been nothing short of ruckus (in a good way)! Gone are the days of sleeping in on weekends, relaxing after dinner and peacefully lounging on the sofa with our gentle cats. What we’ve had lately can better be described as chaos, and we are adjusting to the new dynamic of having an energetic, 10-month-old rescue pup in the mix. And oh my goodness, do we love her!

I’ll share more soon about this sweet girl, who answers to “Roxie,” but today I want to share about this pasta dish. I feel that I have “some ‘splaining to do” about why I purchased ready-made pasta rather than making it myself as I usually do. The reason is in the sauce! 

If there is one thing I’ve learned from my kitchen mistakes, it is that I should never take on too many new or complicated things at once. So when I spotted a twin pack of pre-made, fresh lobster ravioli during our last Costco run, I thought, “why not?” It gave me a head start on a meal that included a special sauce that I’ve wanted to try— a pink sauce for seafood pasta. I’ve had this type sauce in restaurants and loved it, but I knew that making handmade pasta at the same time would be overwhelming with everything else we have on our plate around here. So I focused on the sauce and conceded to taking a shortcut with the pasta.

Now, before you get too excited about this lobster ravioli, or hit me up for the brand, let me assure you that it wasn’t great. We found the pasta itself to be on the bland side, and the filling was pasty with barely a hint of lobster flavor. Lesson learned. But this sauce? Oh, my my, was it delicious, and it turned out to be not complicated at all! I took my time developing the flavors, using up some shrimp shells I had stashed in the freezer to make a quick seafood stock with garlic, fresh thyme and a splash of dry rosé wine. 

The sauce’s pink color comes from tomato paste, which I cooked in the olive oil remnants after sautéing sweet onions and garlic. I went easy on the heavy cream, subbing in cream cheese for a silky texture, and a quick stir-in of Parmesan gave it a salty rich finish. 

We topped the ravioli and pink sauce with some quick sautéed shrimp— a good move, given that the ravioli was skimpy on seafood flavor. This sauce was every bit as good as any I’ve ever had in a restaurant (Les licked up every bit with his thumb, which is always a good sign), and I look forward to making this again soon, with handmade lobster ravioli next time, obviously. Now, how many will be joining us for dinner?

Pink Sauce for Seafood Pasta

• Servings: 4
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Difficulty: Average
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Tomato paste and cream cheese give this sauce a pretty pink color, and a quick homemade shrimp stock adds a world of flavor!

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced lengthwise
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• A quick shake or two red pepper flakes
• 3 Tbsp. organic tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp stock (see below)
• 4 oz. cream cheese or neufchâtel, at room temperature and cut into cubes
• 1 or 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp. freshly grated Parm-Romano blend cheese

Directions

1. Place a wide, shallow pot over medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté onions until softened. Add garlic and cook one more minute, taking care not to let the garlic burn. Add tomato paste and swirl it around the oiled pan a bit to release more flavor.
2. Strain shrimp stock into the sauce pot, stirring to dissolve the thick tomato paste. Allow mixture to boil gently for a few minutes to blend flavors and thicken the sauce.
3. Add cream cheese cubes, reduce heat to low and stir or whisk gently to melt the cream cheese into the sauce. When no visible bits of cream cheese remain, stir in heavy cream. Finally, stir in Parm-Romano cheese.
4. Add al denté cooked pasta to the sauce and allow it to simmer at very low heat, just long enough for the sauce to cling to the pasta.

Note: Each time we cook shrimp, I stash the shells and tails in a zip-top freezer bag for future stock needs. If you don’t have shrimp shells, consider using a store-bought seafood stock. Stock can be made in advance and frozen in plastic containers for future use.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Approximately 2 cups frozen shrimp shells
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 pinches salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Water and/or low sodium vegetable broth to cover shells
• Fresh thyme sprigs
• 1/4 cup dry white or rosé wine

Directions

1. Place a decent size sauce pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add shrimp shells and toss several times to cook.
2. When shrimp shells are fully pink, add garlic and season with salt and pepper. Add just enough water or low-sodium vegetable broth to cover all the shells in the pan.
3. Place thyme sprigs on top of shells and pour in wine. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Pour through strainer and discard solids. Recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups stock.