Give peas a chance

I've never had fresh peas, that I remember, until tonight. Darling Husband shelled them, and I was amazed at the size! Each of these was probably 2-3 times larger than the average frozen pea. They were like peas on steroids. Trust me, you could be a pretty dense princess and still feel this rock under your mattress!

I blanched them in salted, boiling water before adding them to my saute pan with garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, scallions, ground cayenne and parsley. Once everything was fragrant and lovely, I added a jar of alfredo sauce, then almost another jar full of milk to rinse out all the goodness from the jar and to thin the sauce. Glue has a place, but it's not on pasta. I set the pan to simmer and added in some raw shrimp, allowing them to slowly poach to pink while linguine cooked. Just before adding the cooked pasta to the sauce, I threw in some more fresh parsley and snipped chives, for freshness and color.

It was a great dish, springy and comforty all at once. Plus, there was good heat that sorta snuck in at you from the red pepper. I like creamy and spicy together; I dip my wings in ranch, for example. The heat here was sort of CIA stealthy, infiltrating your system before you realized it. We served with bread, lovingly sent home in a care package from Darling Husband's parents. We'd spent the weekend at their camp, visiting family from out of town, and were happy to have a quick meal to come home to. Made up, I should add, from almost all stuff I had (frozen shrimp, left over herbs and scallions, peas I bought a week ago and forgot to make).