Langostino Bruschetta {Inspired by I Fratellini}

For dinner last night, I tried to imitate a dish from one of our favorite restaurants, I Fratellini. If you live in St. Louis, and you've never been to this little gem, you must check it out. Soon. It's definitely on the cozy (aka: small) side, but it's so beautiful...and pretty romantical, too. Perfect for a date night! I definitely recommend reservations for a Friday or Saturday.

We always order the "Sauteed Shrimp" from their Antipasto menu. It's delicious and simple. I've often thought about making something similar at home, and last night I finally did it. I had every intention of making it with shrimp, but when I saw "langostino tails" at the store, I decided to give 'em a whirl. I thought they were like mini lobster tails. Wrong. Turns out, they're actually just as close to hermit crabs as they are lobster. Say wuuuh? Oh well, I tried to look past my unfortunate wikipedia discovery and just pretended I was using mini lobster tails.

Like I mentioned, this dish is simple. Here's what I used and how I put it together (my measurements are estimated)...

12 oz. frozen Langostino OR shrimp...thawed

3 oz. Prosciutto

1 15 oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed & drained (these beans deserve their own post, BTW)

1/2 cup white wine

4 garlic cloves

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Shredded parmesan - about 1/3 cup to top dish

Salt, pepper, & red pepper flakes to taste

Loaf of french bread

Start by preheating your oven to 375 to warm the bread. Next, rough chop the langostino into smaller pieces. Then you want to chop up the prosciutto, too. I usually do this by rolling up a few pieces and cutting it into thin strips. Finely chop the garlic, too.

Heat your olive oil in a big saute pan, over low heat. Once it's ready to go, toss in the langostino, prosciutto, garlic, and cannellini beans. Season mixture with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if you like a little heat. Like we do. Stir it all together, and saute for about four minutes.

Next, add the wine. Keep cooking/stirring until the langostino/shrimp pink up and are cooked through, and the wine reduces - about 8 minutes. The mixture will be saucy, but shouldn't be too watery. If it is, just cook it a little longer. Be careful not to overcook it though because shrimp & lobster can get rubbery if cooked too long. Remove your pan from the heat, toss in the basil, and top with the shredded parm.

At some point, you should have put your bread in the oven to warm it. So take that out and slice it up. Serve the sauteed hermit crab mini lobster tails on top of the baguette slices, or just serve it in a bowl and spoon a little bit onto each piece as you go. That's the method we chose.

This delish dish took less than 30 minutes to make, including prep and clean-up. I'd say it made about 4-6 antipasto servings. We had it with a salad, for a lovely Friday night dinner at home. Which, sometimes, is just as nice as a date night out.

Buon Appetito!