One-Pot Lemony Linguine with Shrimp and Spinach

The original is an example of simple Italian cooking at its best, where a few simple ingredients create an intensely flavored dish. Following suit, we knew the key to making our pasta sing was to coax maximum flavor out of each ingredient. Thinking resourcefully, we saved the shrimp shells and made a quick shrimp broth by simmering them with white wine for just 5 minutes, and then enhanced this with clam juice. We used this flavorful liquid to poach our shrimp and cook our pasta, which became infused with the shrimp’s briny flavor as the liquid reduced. We found the flat, wide strands of linguine stood up better to the shrimp and spinach than did more traditional spaghetti. Baby spinach wilted immediately when stirred into the warm pasta along with our shrimp. To add plenty of lemon flavor, we whisked up a lemon-Parmesan dressing, using the citrus’s zest as well as its juice, and poured this over the still-hot pasta to maximize absorption and create a nutty, creamy sauce. Finally, we finished the dish with a healthy pat of butter and a sprinkle of fresh basil, rounding out and balancing the sauce and accenting it with a hit of sweet, herbal flavor.