This recipe is based on a salad I once enjoyed in Verona. It’s a fussy presentation, to be sure: you arrange a little salad in the bottom of every bowl, and then you carefully pour hot consommé over the top. But when you do that, the mingled perfumes of shrimp and arugula are absolutely heady. The consommé can be used, without the refining step, as a base for soups and for making risotto. You can prepare it and cook the shrimp a day in advance, which turns this into an extremely elegant spring first course that requires almost no last-minute preparation.
6 SERVINGS
2 |
cups water |
1 |
teaspoon salt |
¼ |
teaspoon red pepper flakes Generous grinding of pepper |
18 |
shell-on medium shrimp (about ¾ pound) |
¾-1 |
cup loosely packed baby arugula leaves |
|
Grated zest of 1 lemon |
10 |
cups boiling Shellfish Consommé (see recipe) |
Bring the water, salt, red pepper flakes and pepper to a boil in a small saucepan. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp, reduce the heat to low and cook until the shrimp are bright pink and heated through, about 5 minutes. Drain the shrimp, rinse with cold water and peel.
Toss together the arugula and lemon zest. Divide evenly among six wide soup or pasta bowls. Arrange 3 shrimp on top of the arugula in each bowl and take the bowls to the table.
Gently ladle the boiling consommé into each bowl, pouring from the edge rather than over the top to avoid disturbing the salad.