Shrimp Pasta Salad is made the ‘Ceviche Style’ meaning at the base it’s a lemon marinated shrimp, pepper, onion and a tad of hot pepper served on quinoa pasta and fresh cilantro. No need to cook anything; the perfect summer meal!
Living in Peru for a few months, one must learn how to make a good ceviche! It’s such an easy and light meal, perfect for summer. I had to make it Peruvian by adding the Quinoa element. So I found a nice quinoa fusilli and mixed it with the shrimp ceviche. I came up with the idea of Shrimp Pasta Salad Ceviche-Style, for a friend’s 40th birthday. She loves Peru so much and had a surprise party, where everyone had to bring a meal… So… I’ve created this dish to honour her love for Peru.
Different Types of Ceviches
In Peru, the proud land of ceviches, the Moche civilization (the guys before the Incas, situated mainly on the Pacific coast) created the dish. Today, they make ceviche mostly with fresh fish or shellfish, even with sharks… The Peruvian ceviche is usually a main dish served with sweet potatoes and Choclo (big-grain corn) and can be quite spicy.
The Ecuadorian version is served as a soup containing fresh coriander leaves and some tomato juice. The Mexicans serve some chips next to it or directly in a taco and are usually spicier. The Caribbean Islands use extra coconut milk in theirs, etc. Everyone has their distinct ceviche style.
Type of Hot Peppers
As for this recipe, it’s a mix; I added fresh cilantro and made it less spicy than the Peruvian style. The hot pepper they use all around Latin America is different, too; it could be Aji in Peru or Rocoto and Habanero on the East Coast. You choose your favourite! I took a frozen Rocoto pepper for this recipe; being frozen killed a bit of its heat, resulting in a milder heat factor.
Fresh Product is Key
The ceviche process requires fresh seafood. Then, it’s the acid of the lime that cooks the seafood over a period of time. I do my shrimp ceviche in 24-30 hours; this way, the shrimp gets firm enough; if it’s a fish ceviche, it won’t be as long. Most recipes I see on the Web say 3 hours of refrigeration… but from my experience in Peru, I know they leave it overnight in the fridge. It won’t get worse, just firmer with time.
Storage
You can keep the ceviche in the lime marinade for up to 48 hours in the fridge but keep in mind that the texture will change. Being a fresh product in an acidic liquid, keeping the leftovers is not recommended.
Variations
If you don’t want to wait after the long marinade and make a quick, easy ceviche check out the Easy Shrimp Ceviche recipe below!
Other Lime-Marinated Recipes
So let’s get that Peru flavour going!
Shrimp Pasta Salad Ceviche Style
Ingredients
- 250 g quinoa fusilli (or normal pasta)
- 300 g fresh shrimps
- 1 yellow or red bell pepper (finely sliced)
- 1 red onion (finely sliced)
- 20 limes or lemons
- 1 orange
- 1 cup fresh cilantro
- 1/2 tsp Rocoto hot peppers (Your favourite hot pepper finely chopped)
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Devein and wash the fresh shrimp, and rinse in cold water.
- Add the shrimps to the bottom of a bowl, add a little salt and pepper.
- Squeeze lime and orange juice until covering the shrimps.
- On top, add the finely sliced rocoto, onion, and red pepper (in that order, so the rocoto merges with the lime juice).
- Leave to marinade in the fridge in an airtight container for about 18-24 hours.
- Cook the quinoa pasta.
- Take out the juice from the ceviche (keep half a cup for taste)
- Mix it with the quinoa pasta, the fresh cilantro leaves, salt, pepper and juice. Let it rest a good 30 minutes before serving.
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