"Hot Mama Pasta"

This thread is also served to give props to 'futuretigermom'

I made her 'Hot Mama Pasta' (found in the recipe thread above, page 7). It is copied and pasted below.

Hot Mama Pasta (adapted from Sammy's Grill recipe)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 lbs dry penne noodles
1/2 quart heavy cream
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 lb. smoked sausage (cut in half moons)
1 lb. shrimp (peeled & deveined)
1/2 lb. crawfish tails (rinsed & drained) OPTIONAL
1 cup Button mushrooms (sliced)
1 bunch green onions (sliced)
1/4 cup blackened season I love this level of heat but its not for everyone, adjust to your taste
3 Tbl. minced garlic
1 cup trinity (trinity makes everything better)


Instructions:

1. Pre-cook pasta. Drain, coat with oil
2. Put cream, blackened season in sauce pot. Reduce by half. Add cheese to thicken.
3. Saute all other ingredients. Add to cream sauce.
4. Toss with noodles.
5. Garnish with cheese, green onions.


Personal preference but I add several steps to this instead of throwing everything in the pot to sauté.
I brown the sausage first and remove so that I can use the fat to brown my mushrooms. Sauté the mushrooms, depending on the size of the pan this can take more than one batch. Don't crowd the mushrooms...for some reason this repeats monotonously over and over again in my head...creepy right. At this point I add the trinity and green onions, sauté until onions are clear. Add the shrimp and garlic, sauté until shrimp are just turning pink. Add crawfish, sauté just until heated through (don't overheat crawfish..remember they have already been cooked). Continue with recipe.




I made this tonight...damn it was tasty...highly recommended. I couple of notes/tweaks...

1. I used hot italian sausage...I also think andouille would do well here...

2. I think that 1/4 cup blackened seasoning is a tad too much...I used the whole 1/4 cup and it was a tad too spicy for my taste...next time I will probably do 2, maybe 3 tbsp.

3. I would also add more trinity. 2 cups instead of 1 cup.

4. I got freaked out when I was reducing the pint of heavy cream, thinking it would not be enough for the 2 Ibs noodles. Don't worry. It coats it just fine and was plenty of sauce.


5. I did not use the crawfish tails. Unnecessary, IMO.