CONFESSION: Nearly all my über-gourmet ingredients come from the Clearance Bin. I can’t help it; I simply can’t pay full price for gourmet ingredients, and I don’t really care how fancy they are. $10 for infused grapeseed oil? Tell me $4 and we’ve got a deal. $6 for Japanese Panko breadcrumbs—hell no. But for $2, I won’t pass it up. Hell, for $2 there’s not much I’d pass up when it comes to gourmet goodies.

And so gourmet store clearance bins are a dangerous place. Ditto the bins at places like HomeGoods and Tuesday Morning. Where else can you get Black Truffle Olive Oil for $6, a good-sized jar of Vanilla Bean Paste for $7 or any number of really yummy luxury treats? So, of course, when we stopped at a gourmet store during Saturday’s Girl’s Day Out shopping trip I got a couple fun items and, with the determination to use shrimp for dinner tonight, came up with something incredible.

Frozen Shrimp is a tough purchase for me. Brand after brand tasted fishy and weird and so I eventually relegated shrimp to the “extra special meals” category, opting to only buy fresh and do my own peeling/de-veining. Thank the gods I found Supreme brand frozen shrimp. Just a $5 or $6 for a 1lb bag of it when it’s on sale, it’s almost too good to be true.

First I sautéed some thinly sliced red pepper, a leek, one clove of garlic and some oregano in some Basil & Garlic Grapeseed Oil. I peeled the tails off the shrimp and tossed them into the mix. When done, I tossed this with some Kalamata Olive Pesto and served it all alongside some canned Mediterranean Dolmas.

We served this with our favorite wine, Luccío Moscato d’Asti.