Giada's Family Dinners: Pepperoncini Shrimp (with pasta)

For our first recipe roulette, I grabbed my husband's Giada's Family Dinners cookbook (see link below) and asked him to pick a number between 1 and 240. He picked 74. On page 74, we found a beautiful picture of grilled shrimp on a plate. Giada and grilled shrimp - you can't go wrong with that, can you?

The recipe was fairly simple: tossing shrimp in a sauce made of finely diced pepperoncini, minced garlic, salt and pepper sauted in olive oil. I chose to grill it on the stove top. Giada didn't specify what to serve the shrimp with, so we tossed the shrimp with spaghetti and olive oil after taking the shrimp off the grill.

Pros: this was very tasty - especially for those who like it a little on the spicy side. It makes a large batch so you'll have plenty for left overs or lots for a large crew.

Cons: The aroma of grilled, minced pepperoncini will clean out your sinuses!!! Definitely grill this OUTSIDE. Unless you have a stuffy head cold.

What I would change:  Stick to the measurements in the recipe. That means measuring the pepperoncini before throwing it into the oil.  Also, I think I'd reserve some of the pepperoncini oil to toss with the shrimp and pasta after grilling it instead of tossing it in the same bowl you tossed the raw shrimp as the recipe suggests. Definitely use deveined, shelled shrimp - but my taste testers wished there were no tails on the shrimp, too.

Overall, this was a big hit with the house. Definitely a keeper. I think it would make a great appetizer too with a sour cream or mayo based dip to go with the shrimp.

Next up - a pick from one of our Rachel Ray cookbooks.