Quick & Easy Pasta with Shrimp and White Beans

One of the hardest things about the holiday season is sticking to your budget. There will always be that one extra gift that you have to get or that happy hour that you "must" attend. I know it's inevitable so before the holidays I was sure to stock my freezer full of grab-and-go meals, mostly soups. They served more than their purpose. I plowed through my stock pile in no time but have no complaints. While my freezer was getting roomier, my wallet was staying full

Post holiday meals, on the other hand, are a little trickier especially since I was out of town for a week. Once my brother, his girlfriend and I returned from our 12 hour road trip from Michigan to New York having only eaten one sandwich and an ungodly amount of potato chips, I needed a real meal!

Concocting said meal was the challenge! I always keep shrimp in my freezer and white beans in the pantry so I set out to combine the two in a pasta dish. It turned out great!

1 1/2 lbs frozen shrimp, thawed
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
3 tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 box short rigatoni or other tube shaped noodle
1 cup reserved cooking water

1) Prepare pasta according to package. Reserve 1 cup of cooking water before straining.
2) Heat one tbsp of butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add in garlic and saute until fragrant, about one minute. Next, add shrimp and cook for about two minutes on each side until pink in color.
3) Push shrimp aside so it's not sitting directly over the heat. Add the beans and remaining butter. Once butter is melted, add wine and simmer until reduced by half. Once reduced, pour in reserved water and Parmesan and heat until melted.
4) Stir shrimp back into sauce. Season with salt and pepper and toss over cooked noodles.

I put this together by the seat of my pants but it turned out pretty great! The color is one dimensional but the flavor was amazing.