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Look out! Now we’re getting fancy.

Last Thursday, we made Emeril’s Shrimp and Pasta with Chilis, Garlic, Lemon and Green Onions. It was amazing! But it was also amazingly spicy — even for my southern husband. We were both sweating after taking only a few bites, but it was so tasty we couldn’t stop eating it. Then we made it again last night.

We halved the recipe both times, but the first time I forgot to half the wine. I also only used half the butter, adding it to the pan before the shrimp, but skipping the step of adding the remainder with the wine, lemon juice and zest. It was plenty buttery, plenty lemony, and beyond plenty spicy.

The second time around, we used the specified amount of wine, used bottled lemon juice instead of fresh, omitted the lemon zest, cut back on the cayenne pepper, and added a tablespoon of half and half. It turns out the wine added quite a bit of flavor, so I plan to go back to doubling it again in the future. Next time I’d like to go back to the fresh lemon, only scale it back a little, so it’s only slightly less lemony than in the recipe. I would also cut WAY back both the cayenne and red pepper — by at least half. I didn’t care for what the added half and half did to the texture, but it was worth a try.

We recommend a glass of ice water with your pinot grigio (or the bottle will be gone before you know it) and ice cream for dessert to put out the fire.

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