Seafood Linguine with Mushrooms & Garlic Cream Sauce

Yikes! Is that a mouthful or what?! So... I'm riding the bus home today... trying to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. Aside from the fact that, it irks me every other time I go to the market, because I have to go to the smaller Nugget Market in Davis. I just feel like the selection isn't as good, but I make do with what I got. I find the main ingredients for what I need after circling the store like 4 or 5 times (yeah... I'm still getting used to where everything is)--shrimp, Alouette cheese, and mmmmushrooms. In the category of seafood pasta, it appears I found this recipe some time last year but I've never made it! Now that I've broken my fear of cooking with seafood, I feel empowered to try new things. Here goes:

Shrimp Linguine with Mushrooms & Garlic Cream Sauce

1 lb. medium peeled & deveined shrimp (wouldn't that be nice?! haha... I got Uncooked-"Easy Peel"-deveined shrimp; there's jus a lil extra work)
3 tbsp. butter
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
3 medium garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crumbled
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt to taste
4 oz. dried linguine
2 oz. Bel Paese cheese, cut into small cubes OR Garlic & Herb Alouette cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a heavy, large skillet over a med-low heat. Add garlic and mushrooms and a generous amount of fresh grated course black pepper. Cook until mushrooms exude their juices, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add rosemary and shrimp, and cook until they are starting to turn pink. Add cream and shrimp until sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Season with salt.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water. Drain well.

Add pasta and cheese to sauce and stir until cheese melts. Transfer to plates. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Serves 2-3.
Courtesy of Cooks.com

Being my first time trying this recipe, there were a couple of things I may do differently. I still wonder some times about the variation of using dried versus fresh herbs. Not following the recipe, I used fresh rosemary instead of dried--I may have put too much because I felt it was almost overpowering the garlic taste. Maybe I should have put in more garlic--it is a GARLIC CREAM SAUCE I'm making. Also note, I did use the Alouette cheese but I held back because I wasn't sure how much of that taste I wanted in it... but I say, go for the entire 2 ounces! The more flavor the better! Do not be afraid!! :o) Lastly, you can cover and let the sauce sit on the pasta for a couple of minutes before serving--it allows for that extra thickening of the sauce we all like.