Prawns in tomato sauce

The simplest, but certainly the most difficult, way of eating shrimp. This dish is made for a hearty dinner, when you want to paint the sauce with bread and peel the shrimp without haste. Get ready to get your fingers a little dirty.

We will need it

Tools: a large, non-stick frying pan with a lid, a spatula for mixing, a sharp knife, a cutting board, and apparently that’s it.

Ingredients for tomato sauce (for 2-3 diners): a few spoons of olive oil for frying, one or even two heads of garlic. More garlic is tastier to me. I put the garlic in a pestle and mortar, then pound it well and peel it, for this dish it is not necessary to chop it finely, just bigger, uneven pieces – that’s it. 300 g of tomatoes, if you use cherry tomatoes, just wash them, dry them and pierce them or cut them in half. Feel free to use canned, plum tomatoes, just choose better quality. You will also need hot peppers, e.g. cayenne flakes, can be flavored with herbs de Provence and fresh parsley is delicious.

How many shrimp do you need? If you cook with heads and unpeeled – you will need more. Because 55% of the shrimp’s weight is the heads and shells and only 45%. for the edible part. When cooking with sauce, one person should plan about 300 grams of unpeeled shrimp or 100 – 150 g without heads and shells.

Manufacturing

Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan, it should be hot but not smoking. Add the garlic and stir-fry lightly until golden, but not browned. Add the tomatoes, if you are frying them fresh, cover the pan and fry until the juices run clear. If you use canned, fry for about 10 minutes until hot and the mass starts to shine. Add the drained shrimp. Cover the pan and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes or more if you are cooking larger ones. Watch the color, gray, uncooked shrimp will turn red. If you are baking gambon, or similar types, which are already pink when uncooked, watch when they turn from translucent to matte. Do not overcook in any way! Overcooked shrimp acquires a floury taste, especially if you cook from thawed ones (which are the easiest to get).

Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and salt. Add parsley.

Kitchen tips. To make it easier to devein the shrimp, cut the shell from the back before cooking. If you want a more elegant meal, you’re entertaining guests or otherwise, fingering doesn’t look sexy, try half-dressing. Leave the heads, the very tip of the tails, but peel the whole shell. With a knife or toothpick, pull out the threads running through the back and belly. It will be nicer.

Such half-peeled shrimp, or if you are going to fry them completely peeled, cook them for a shorter time. Shrimp cook very quickly.

A very good article on how to cook and not overcook shrimp is Bon Appetite, read it.

To marinate or not to marinate? If I cook it peeled, I marinate it a little, but not so much that it takes on the flavor of the shrimp, as I don’t want it to spoil, because anyway, if you cook it like that, you need to start cooking a little earlier. Pickling is the simplest, a little chopped garlic, a little cayenne and a drizzle of olive oil. If we fry whole shrimps, and usually when we cook them quickly on some day of the week, we do not marinate them. The flavor you get from the sauce is enough.

For me, this recipe is a lifesaver when you don’t know what to make. Usually, there are always canned tomatoes in the cupboard and shrimp in the freezer. Even a baguette or another leftover slice of ciabatta can be found in the freezer, you just need to revive it in the oven or toaster.

Try a similar, but richer, shrimp recipe with more ingredients chorizo.

Delicious!