Add some spice and flavor to your life with Coconut Oil and Florida Flavors

Alright, so here's another way to incorporate healthy coconut oil into a dish...oh, and by the way, incorporate a "great flavor", namely, Floridian flavors with pasta! This dish will help you lose weight, improve your immune system, healthier skin, and fight against heart disease (to name a few), great tasting (tropical flavors, spice, and bright flavors), and looks great....Sounds good?, Lets get to it!...

So you take your basic pasta recipe - pasta sauce, pasta, and maybe a protein or veggie to go with it...so for the people who don't like their veggies, I'm doing you a favor by making it into a sauce...and if you want something that makes you say, "hmmm?", we're taking what Floridian flavors of citrus, garlic, cumin, tropical fruit, and jalapenos (scotch bonnit peppers, actually, but I can't handle that kind of heat!)(it doesn't make me a bad person, hahaha!)...ok, focus!....

So take your pasta sauce recipe that you like, add the Floridian flavors, and you have something really good...BUT...to make it GREAT, lets add coconut oil and make this actually healthy for you without sacrificing flavor...treat the coconut oil like you would butter, and enjoy!

Floridian Inspired Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce with Rigatoni and Shrimp

Serves 4

Sauce:
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
8 cloves of garlic
4 oz light olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste

Salsa:
3 tbsp light olive oil + 1 crushed garlic clove
2 shallots - finely diced
1 to 2 jalapenos (1 = light spicy / 2 more spicy)
*authentically, you need a scotch bonnit pepper or even a habanero
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup pineapple, finely diced
2 oz lemon juice (use lime juice if you have it)
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 coriander
salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp coconut oil, unrefined/virgin

16 oz rigatoni pasta, reserve some pasta liquid, if needed

12 ea medium sized shrimp, peeled and devined (frozen or fresh)

2 tbsp, finely chopped Italian parsley

Make the sun-dried tomato sauce, in your food processor, add the garlic, olive oil, tomato paste and sun-dried tomatoes, puree until smooth. Set aside.

Cook your pasta to al dente in salty boiling water - time your pasta accordingly - you want your pasta done when your salsa is done.

Make your salsa, add your olive oil and infuse the oil with the crushed garlic on medium heat, 5 minutes. Remove the crushed garlic and mince into the rest of the garlic. Add the shallot and saute on medium heat until translucent, 2 minutes. Add jalapeno, garlic and saute, 2 minutes. Add pineapples, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper (watch your salt!) cook for 2 more minutes. Add coconut oil and stir until oil is melted into salsa, 2 minutes.

Combine your dish. Add sun-dried tomato to salsa and stir to combine, cook for 2 more minutes, you want to have a slight cumin flavor, so add more if you need it. Adjust seasoning again as needed (again, watch the salt). Add pasta and reserve some pasta liquid if you need it. Toss pasta and aerate the sauce with the pasta. Turn off heat, and add shrimp and continue to toss until shrimp just turns pink. Add parsley to garnish and enjoy!

If you have crusty bread, use it to pick up the sauce at the end of the dish!

Be GREAT, One Meal at a Time!!!
Jameson