Roasted Shrimp and Asparagus Scampi

It gets so hot and here in Georgia that we end up having a thunderstorm almost every single day in the summer.  They're usually super scary and full of dangerously close lightning, but they're over pretty quickly.

Anyway, as I'm sure I've said before...fall is my favorite season.  And everyone knows that by August you're just sick of summer at this point anyway and are ready for it to just get the heck out of here.  But, there are a few things I'll miss about summer.  And I'll give you a hint...it's not the fact that for some reason there are NO pools to be found in this one-horse town. 

No here's what I'll miss about summer:

Summer fruit (blueberries omg yum yum yum)

Light pasta dishes.

This recipe is primarily going to address the latter, but I'll get to blueberries later, promise.

I've been making this recipe forever now because it's easy, light, fresh-tasting, and it involves shrimp.  What more can you ask?

Roasted Shrimp and Asparagus Scampi

(adapted from Good Housekeeping)

Ingredients

1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 lemon, juiced and zested
Salt
3 tsp olive oil
12oz raw shrimp, peeled, detailed, deveined
3 cloves minced garlic
1/8 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 box linguine or thin spaghetti

Directions

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Add 1 tsp olive oil so that the pasta doesn't stick.  Cook pasta according to "al dente" directions on container.

Preheat oven to 450, line a baking sheet with foil.  In a medium bowl, toss asparagus, 2 tsp olive oil, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Spread onto pan in an even layer.  Place in oven and roast for 5 minutes.

In the same bowl, mix shrimp, garlic, lemon zest (not juice), and crushed red pepper.

After the asparagus has roasted for five minutes, remove the pan.  Using a spatula, push the asparagus all to one side of the pan.  In the other side, spread the shrimp.  Return to oven and roast for 5 minutes more, or until shrimp turn opaque.  Remove from oven.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/3 cup starchy water that the pasta was boiled in.  Place pasta in a large bowl.  Add the shrimp, asparagus, lemon juice, basil, and 1/8 tsp salt.  Stir to mix.  Add starchy water as needed so that the pasta doesn't stick together.  Enjoy!