I’ve been baking nearly my entire life, and as I’ve joked, I could bake an award winning cake before I could cook a meal.  As it turns out, I’d been competing with the American Pie Council and the National Pie Championship for a couple of years before I ever entered a non-sweet cooking competition.

Looking back on it, I’m not even sure what possessed me to submit my recipe to Taste of Home, but I did.  It was named a finalist, printed in their Healthy Cooking magazine, and later, included in one of their annual cookbooks.

My original version of this recipe used regular semolina linguine, but for the contest, I changed it to whole wheat pasta.  The recipe works well either way, so enjoy!

1 cup sliced baby Portobello mushrooms
1 medium sweet yellow pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium green pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces uncooked linguine (photograph shows whole wheat pasta)
1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dried parsley flake

In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, saute the mushrooms, peppers and shallot in oil until tender. Add garlic and pepper flakes; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the tomatoes, Italian seasoning and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 12-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Meanwhile, cook linguine according to package directions. Add shrimp to sauce; cook and stir for 5-7 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Drain linguine; stir into sauce. Heat through. Sprinkle with parsley.Yield: 4 servings.