Cheesy Shrimp and Mushroom Capellini

Let’s just break down all our deeply rooted prejudices and admit that Pasta Roni is f’ing delicious.  I remember when I was a moody, irrational, hormonally-imbalanced teenager who was unfairly forced to do the nightly dishes, because as you know, parents are jerks.  My dad loved (and still loves) Pasta Roni so it was a staple in our weeknight routine.  Like many teens working their way through the unreasonable expectations of ourselves and others, I’d eat only a spoon full of the Pasta Roni, because of course I was watching my figure.  I would trudge into the kitchen to do the dishes (we had no dishwasher, can you imagine?!) and the first thing I would do is eat every. last. bite. of the leftover pasta out of the pan.  Because something literally had taken over my body and I had no choice at all in the matter.  Hello, my name is Shawny and I’m a (Pasta Roni) addict.

Fast forward 10 years (haha) to last week and I found myself at the grocery store looking for a weeknight side dish.  I was about to enter into a very long several days of working at an event away from home and cooking for 2 client dinners and I wanted to save all of my culinary effort.  I bought a couple steaks, some asparagus and… you guessed it.  I almost always try and cook from scratch so it’s been years since I had ripped open that packet of fake cheese deliciousness.  Well, sorry/not sorry, it was as good as I’d remembered and then and there I decided to try and make an upgraded version.

Because of the events I’d recently been cooking for, I had a boatload of random ingredients in my fridge. I also walked out into my backyard and saw my gorgeous chive blossoms were in full bloom and decided to incorporate them.  Although the flowers give it a beautiful garnish and nice oniony bite, they are not at all necessary and this recipe can be made any time of year.

This pasta dish is a home run in the trilogy of easy, gourmet enough to serve to guests, and fast.  There’s not a lot of ingredients, none are difficult and all are easily substituted for whatever you have in your pantry.  I hope you enjoy it!

[tasty-recipe id=”399″]