Shrimp Orzo

I threw this together the other night and it was pretty darn delicious.

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb orzo pasta
salt
black pepper
garlic powder
olive oil
1/2 c grape tomatoes, halved (about a large handful)
4 tbsp butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 c white wine
red pepper flakes

After shrimp are peeled and deveined season them with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.  Set aside.

In a large stockpot, bring a gallon of water to a boil.  Season the water with salt and olive oil.  Boil the orzo for 10 minutes or until tender.  Drain and set aside.

In a small skillet, heat just a bit of olive oil (1 tbsp) on med-high heat till it sizzles and throw in your tomatoes.  Toss around the tomatoes as they cook.  You just want to wilt them a bit.  When they start looking like they are falling apart, take them off the heat.  This should only take about 5 minutes.  Put the tomatoes in a bowl and set aside.

Wipe out the skillet with a paper napkin and put it back on the heat (lower to med).  Put your butter in the pan.  Once it's melted (this shouldn't take long as the pan should be really hot) add the garlic and let it cook and start to sizzle.  Add a bit of olive oil (maybe 2 tsp) and when it's all melded together nicely, throw in the wine to deglaze the pan.  Let that cook for another minute or so and then add your shrimp.  Cook until the shrimp are nice and pink and covered in the yummy sauce.

(I should note that when I make this again, I'm going to cut my shrimp in half.  I think you get a better distribution of shrimp to orzo ratio that way.)

Once the shrimp are cooked, it's time to assemble.

Put the orzo in a large serving bowl.  Pour the shrimp and all the sauce over the orzo.  Fold together and taste for seasoning.  I added more salt here and the red pepper flakes.  Gently fold in the tomatoes.  Serve!

There are several ways to vary this.  If you're into presentation (I'm not. I'm into eating.) you could leave the shrimp whole (or with the tails on) and serve them on top of each plate of orzo.  I also wanted to char up some sliced asparagus with the tomatoes but I forgot them at the store.  That would have been really nice flavors.  It's kind of got a scampi flavor but the tomatoes are nice and smoky.  You could also sub the shrimp for chicken or even crawfish.  It was really, really delicious.  My girl ate it up and my husband had two bowls.  A success in my book!