… especially when you read the small print
Tuscan shrimp with beans and tomatoes. This is the first batch, in which I inattentively added a can of diced tomatoes with chipotle peppers. If you like the heat, try it this way. But if you want the intended blend of flavors, the chipotle just overwhelms it completely.
Mark Guydish | For Times Leader
The ingredients for a delicious Tuscan shrimp with beans, except that since we had them I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Then when it looked like it could use more tomato, I opened a can I had bought without noticing it included chipotle peppers.
Mark Guydish | For Times Leader
Tuscan shrimp with beans and tomatoes, the right way (sans any hot peppers). While it was interesting when I accidentally added diced tomatoes with chipotle, sticking to the recipe made a delicious dish with more nuanced flavors.
Mark Guydish | For Times Leader
I’d like to say this new recipe from America’s Test Kitchen was so good I made it twice in one week, but that would be only partly true. To mimic (pay homage to?) my better half, I’ll use MT’s segue: Alas, gentle readers, I cooked it again so soon because I erred on the first attempt.
While you can certainly use a few fresh tomatoes in this, the chef on America’s Test Kitchen opted for canned so that it could be a year-round meal without worrying about finding good tomatoes off season. So I dutifully grabbed two cans of diced tomatoes during a shopping trip.
Once home, I discovered we had two fresh tomatoes on the counter, left over from something MT had made. I figured I’d just slice them up instead. But when I added them it didn’t look like enough tomato to balance the two cans of cannellini beans, so opened a can of tomatoes and dumped them in.
As we ate the finished product, I mentioned that while it was good, it had a lot more heat than I thought it should. Aside from some sliced garlic and a dash of red pepper, this is about shrimp, tomato, basil and lemon — hardly “south of the border” flavors, unless you live in France. MT first suggested I should have skipped the red pepper, but knowing her mom was going to try it, I barely put in a few flakes. And the garlic was sliced and cooked, rather than minced, which mellows the flavor a good bit.
Then MT suggested the canned tomatoes may have been seasoned with something. I initially dismissed the idea, sure that I had grabbed plain “diced tomatoes,” but then — repressing what one sibling has called “the Guydish” in us (Dad was always more stubbornly certain of things than Mom) — I went to check the can, and discovered I had inattentively missed the “with chipotle” in smaller print.
The upshot? Using tomatoes with some hot pepper is a great way to give this dish a dose of heat that can be a tasty alternative, but it simply overwhelms what it was meant to be. That was obvious, so within a week after serving the botched batch, I was doing it all again, only this time I stuck to the recipe, using one can of diced tomatoes, no added flavorings.
“This is magnificent,” MT cooed. Then she asked if, when I write about it, will I include my mistake? Of course, I promised, that’s what “test kitchen” is all about.
“Well, it makes for an interesting story,” MT said.
That judgment, gentle readers, I leave to you.
Dobru chut!
Tuscan shrimp and beans with tomatoes (America’s Test Kitchen)
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (keep shells)
1 quart cold water for brine, ¾ cup for shrimp stock
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 anchovies, minced
¼ teaspoon red pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans cannellini beans, one drained, one not
¼ cup basil, sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice,
½ teaspoon lemon zest.
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Mix water, sugar and salt for a brine, soak shrimp for 15 minutes. Remove (with a slotted spoon or tongs, rather than by pouring into a sieve — to reduce retention of salt) and set on paper towels.
To make a shrimp stock, heat 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over medium, add shrimp shells. Cook five minutes stirring occasionally until brown. Add about ¾ cup water. Simmer about five minutes. Drain in a drainer in bowl to save stock, should be about ¼ cup.
Clean out skillet and heat 2 tablespoons olive oil to shimmer, add onion, garlic, anchovies, red pepper, salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, until onions are soft. Add tomatoes, beans and shrimp stock. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmering for about 15 minutes.
Add shrimp and turn heat down to low. Put lid on pan and cook 5-7 minutes until pink and opaque.
Add basil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste.
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