When my husband leaves or is out for an evening, I make girly food and invite my friends over.

Sometimes this looks like piles of fruit, cheese, crackers and snacks. Sometimes it looks like things with mushrooms or things that are meatless. Recently, it looked like tortellini in wine sauce with shrimp and fresh basil, and after I made it I felt a little bad because darn if he wouldn’t have liked it, girly as it may have been.

Still, I served it to my girlfriend Heidi with a side of asparagus, some fancy bread from Wheatfields and some crisp white wine, and felt pretty girly about the whole thing. A day later, he ate it cold from a Tupperware container and was fairly pleased as well, so we all got something out of the deal.

This is a simple recipe with few ingredients, but they are so perfect together I wouldn’t dare muck it up with a bunch of complicated additions. It’s something fast to make for company and you can talk while you do it, though be careful because I totally burned the bread in the broiler on the first go-round. Blame that wine.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2014/sep/25/279488/

Shrimp Tortellini in White Wine Sauce

1 lb medium-sized shrimp
1 bag frozen tortellini
1/2 cup white wine
Handful of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cloves of garlic
5 or 6 fresh basil leaves
Fresh Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Peel your shrimp, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and set aside.

In a saute pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and drop in the tomatoes warm until they’re soft and sweet. Add the garlic, and then the shrimp and cook for about three minutes on both sides over medium heat until they’re all pink. Don’t overcook the shrimp!

Meanwhile, boil water in a stock pot and add the tortellini. They only take a few minutes to cook in a boiling pot, so watch carefully.

Drain them well, return them to the stock pot, add the other 2 tablespoons of butter and the shrimp/tomato mixture. Keep it warm over medium-low heat and add in about 1/2 cup of white wine. When you are ready to serve, chiffonade the basil leaves and sprinkle them over with some grated fresh Parmesan.

This is aromatic, beautiful and gorgeous in its simplicity. I called it chick food, but really I can’t think of many people (except possibly those with shellfish allergies) who wouldn’t be delighted by this meal.