A Birthday Meal – Shrimp Scampi Stuffed Shells

I am not a huge believer in making a big deal out of celebrating one’s birthday, at least when you are an adult. I don’t think it warrants a party every year or a day off of work (but then again, my birthday is in August and I am a teacher, so…) However, I am firmly in the camp of having a celebratory birthday meal. I think that on your birthday you get to decide what the family eats, whether a meal at your favorite restaurant or someone preparing your favorite dish.

For years, my wife’s birthday meal was home-cooked Shrimp Scampi over fresh pasta. Shrimp always makes dinner feel special, and eating fresh pasta – a huge step-up over dried – was certainly something we didn’t do on a regular basis. When I was gifted a hand-cranked pasta maker for my 40^th birthday after a family trip to Italy, fresh pasta became a more regular occurrence, at least on weekends. And it was certainly put to use for my wife’s birthday. A mound of fresh, homemade pasta, piled with succulent shrimp, bathed in garlic, butter, olive oil, white wine, and lemon; a touch spicy from red pepper flakes, and salty from a shower of fresh grated Parmesan. Crusty bread on the side to sop up the leftover juices.

But all that came to an end. A few years ago, after eating a meal of shrimp (I don’t think it was either scampi or her birthday), my wife woke up the next day with hives all over her body. After years of eating shrimp, an allergic reaction. The doctor couldn’t explain with certainty why it happened now. There are many different types of shrimp, and they all eat different foods, all of which could contribute to an allergic reaction. It would be impossible to pin it down, and the allergist could not be sure if it posed a danger more than a rash. She advised against ever eating shrimp again. A birthday tradition ended.

Of course that wasn’t going to stop me. I’m not allergic to shrimp so why did I need to stop eating it? That doesn’t mean I needed to flaunt it in front of my wife, however. I could find another way to eat Shrimp Scampi. Perhaps turn it into an appetizer that I could make for guests at a party; one hors’ d’oeuvres among many so that it would be diluted and she wouldn’t care. And so I turned the dish inside out, stuffing the scampi with all its sweet, salty, spicy, and zesty flavors inside shell-shaped pasta. I even included the crusty bread.

While my wife can no longer eat her preferred birthday dinner, that doesn’t mean new traditions can’t arise. The last few years I’ve been obsessed with cooking dinners composed of four or five or six small plates, and that’s how we celebrate her birthday now. While she can no longer have Shrimp Scampi over fresh pasta for her birthday, she is served four or five or six of her other favorite dishes to make up for it.

Shrimp Scampi Stuffed Shells

My go-to recipe for Classic Shrimp Scampi is from Melissa Clark at The New York Times. It’s perfect in every way. I used that recipe as a starting point to make these Shrimp Scampi Stuffed Shells. Since the entire dish – shrimp, flavorings, and the crusty bread that would normally be dipped in the sauce – needs to be contained within the pasta, I upped the amount of liquid. This allows the liquid to be used to flavor the filling, and there is enough remaining in which to warm the shells before eating and spoon over the top for an extra punch of flavor.

Makes 8 to 10 stuffed shells, about 45 minutes

4 Tbsp. butter, divided

4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

1 cup bread cubes from a good loaf of bread, cut into roughly ¼-inch pieces

8 to 10 jumbo pasta shells

4 cloves garlic, minced

¼ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

½ cup dry white wine

¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste

10 oz. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed, cut into ¼ to ½-inch pieces

juice of 1 lemon

½ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese, divided

¼ cup fresh parsley, minced, divided

1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy skillet large enough to hold the bread and shrimp over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the bread cubes. Cook, stirring frequently, until the bread is toasty, about 15 minutes. Set aside in a large bowl to cool. No need to clean the skillet.
2. While the bread is cooking, prepare the pasta according to package directions as if prepared to be served with sauce (not stuffed and baked). Drain and set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 ^oF.
4. Heat the remaining butter and olive oil over medium heat in the same pan in which the bread cubes were cooked. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute. You want the flavor of the garlic to bloom, with no sign of browning.
5. Add the salt, black pepper, white wine, and crushed red pepper flakes, and simmer until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.
6. Add the shrimp pieces and sauté until they just turn pink about 2 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat so the shrimp do not get overcooked. Allow to cool slightly and stir in the lemon juice.
7. Remove as much of the shrimp and garlic as possible with a slotted spoon, and add to the cooked bread cubes. Add 2 tablespoons of the liquid, along with all but 2 tablespoons of grated cheese and all but 1 tablespoon of the parsley. Stir the mixture together, taste, and adjust seasonings.
8. Divide the mixture into eight to ten portions and stuff into each pasta shell. As each shell is stuffed, place in an ovenproof dish or pan that is large enough to fit all the stuffed shells. Add a small spoonful of sauce over the top of each shell and pour any remaining liquid in the dish or pan around the base of the shells. Top with remaining grated cheese. (Shells can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated at this point until ready to be heated and served.)
9. Place in the oven and cook until just warmed through, about 10 minutes (or longer if straight out of the refrigerator). Just before serving top each stuffed shell with a spoonful of warm sauce from the bottom of the dish and remaining chopped parsley as a garnish.

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