It's carnival season - filled with beads, parades and king cake. Throws and screams hurl through the air as friends and families gather and celebrate what makes this place unique. For me, these sights and sounds are quintessential Louisiana "flavors," and inspire me to highlight some other local tastes in this week's recipe.
Did you know andouille was originally a French sausage? I just assumed it was created and named here because of how prevalent it is in Cajun cuisine, but it predates the Acadian exile. Like many Louisiana sausages it's made of pork, but this variety is less about spice and more about smoke. It's also far more coarsely-ground than our every day pork sausage. With all the flavor from double smoking and its high fat content, I think of andouille like a Cajun bacon. In this recipe I play with this idea by rendering rounds of the sausage and cooking vegetables and some fresh Louisiana seafood in its flavorful essence.
Shrimp & andouille pasta
Ingredients
8 oz andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
1 lb Louisiana shrimp
Creole seasoning like Tony Chachere's
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBS butter
1 onion, diced
1 c bell pepper, diced
3 TBS white wine
1 c chicken or vegetable broth
1 lb pasta, any small variety - I used mini farfalle (bowties)
green onion, chopped
Directions
- Render sausage on medium-high heat in a large, high-sided skillet for 3-4 minutes until browned, remove rounds
- Add pasta to salted, boiling water, cook according to package directions
- Season shrimp with creole seasoning and add with garlic into the sausage fat, sauté until pink, 3-4 minutes, remove shrimp
- Add butter and sauté vegetables until softened, deglaze with white wine, cook for 2 minutes, add broth and simmer until reduced by a third
- Add sausage and shrimp back into the pan and reduce heat, fold in drained, cooked pasta (reserved pasta water can help to thicken and coat the pasta if necessary)
- Top with chopped green onion
Kick up your heels, grab a beer, and pass a good time with this easy-to-make flavorful Louisiana meal.