Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus

After the big beef dinner the other night, I wanted seafood. And salad.

I took care of the salad craving at lunch. Mom and I stopped at Macaroni Grill after we spent the morning shopping. We each had a Caesar salad and split a little Pizza Margherita. But I still wanted fish or seafood and I still needed to plan dinner. I saw a trip to the fish market in my near future.

I stopped by the fish market after I took mom to the airport (she flew in on Saturday to spend a few days with us). I strolled past the cases of whole fish and filets. They looked good but I felt lazy and didn't want to fuss with fish bones. Hmm... what about scallops? They looked big and plump. But no, what caught my eye was some shrimp. Nice little shrimp (40 count). I got a pound of the little buggers and drove home.

Ok, so I have shrimp. But how can we fix it? Earlier today, I picked up some gnocchi at Trader Joe's. Shrimp and gnocchi sounded ok but not all that exciting. I called Biscuit Boy at work to let him know I got shrimp. After a few minutes of negotiation, we struck upon a plan for dinner. Gnocchi with shrimp and asparagus. I felt a little bit of drool in the corner of my mouth. Dinner would be good, very good.

While I peeled and deveined shrimp, Biscuit Boy sauteed some garlic on a little olive oil. Once the oil was nicely scented, he removed the garlic and took the skillet off the heat. Meanwhile he steamed about 8 stalks of asparagus, cooled them slightly, sliced them into 1 inch pieces and set them aside. Next up was the gnocchi. They were boiled for 2 minutes, drained and set aside. He reheated the garlic infused olive oil, tossed in the shrimp and cooked them until just done. Then he tossed in the asparagus, gnocchi and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Finally he tossed in some grated Parmesan cheese, gave it all a quick toss and spooned it into a serving bowl.

Did I mention that I thought dinner would be very good? Well, I was wrong.......it was amazing! Even Biscuit Pup liked it. She got hold of a shrimp that jumped ship as Biscuit Boy was spooning it into the serving bowl. She then sat glued to my side all during dinner giving me that 'I haven't eaten in days' look. By the time dinner was over, she had another shrimp and a gnocchi. She's a very happy little doggie.....and we're pretty content ourselves.