Do you love the words “Dinner is ready” especially if you have only one pan to clean afterwards and you know you’ve got everyone’s favorite dish – shrimp – is on the menu? That’s a go in this household! We are in love with this Greek Style Tomato Baked Shrimp. With creamy, tangy, feta cheese plus a sprinkle of dill on top it’s impossible to go wrong. It’s a recipe we’ve enjoyed and adapted to fit our tastes over many years thanks to a community of Greek friends I met in Memphis during college. The Greek cookbook that was a treasured graduation present has long ago lost its cover along with several pages but scribbled between margins is a small collection of personal notes about how to make certain dishes even better. For example – add a splash of wine (always a good tip), use extra lemon juice, add parsley…. well you get the idea. That book was the beginning of a love of Greek food.
Over the years I’ve discovered that if you are in a hurry but still want to impress company or just have a special night for family, shrimp is always a good idea. Almost everyone loves shrimp and even those who are on the fence agree that this recipe works for about a million reasons. First it has a delicious tomato sauce, rich with onions and garlic, flavored with a pinch of red pepper, that famous splash of wine, and a little oregano. This sauce comes together in a flash and then you just put that one (one!) skillet in the oven until it’s all bubbly and nice. Next steps: skillet out – shrimp in- feta on top – skillet in – dinner bell in ten minutes. The easiest thing in the world is to serve this dinner with a nice crusty loaf of bread for scooping up sauce. That works particularly well if you use tail-on shrimp, making this a fun dish to use fingers for eating and lots of napkins for clean-up. A more sophisticated way to go is to remove the tails before cooking and serve the shrimp and sauce on rice, or maybe orzo. That is certainly dinner party worthy. If you must have a something green besides the dill on top, lettuce dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper is about all you need. Now about that one skillet to clean…let it soak overnight and enjoy that well deserved extra glass of wine while everyone raves about your amazing culinary prowess. Isn’t that fun? You will love this – make it soon!
Greek Style Tomato Baked Shrimp
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 (28 oz) cans whole tomatoes (one drained, one with juice)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
¼ cup red wine
1 tsp oregano
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 lb large shrimp (shelled and deveined – defrosted if frozen)
Olive oil, salt, and pepper to coat shrimp (about 1 tsp of each)
3 oz feta cheese
Fresh dill – optional
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium high heat.
Add onion, garlic and salt and sauté until softened – about 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, oregano, and pepper flakes stirring to combine thoroughly.
Put skillet in the oven and bake until thickened and bubbly, about 25 minutes.
In a small bowl, toss shrimp with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Remove skillet from oven and stir in shrimp.
Top with crumbled feta and bake 10 -12 minutes until shrimp is pink.
Broil one minute if desired to brown cheese.
Top with dill and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
