About Oven Roasted Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

One of the things we generally always have in the freezer is a bag of frozen shrimp. There are many reasons why we generally always have a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, but I'll only bore you with four: (1) shrimp is easy to cook, (2) and it does so real fast like, (3) plus it's delicious, and (4) the "fresh" shrimp you buy in the seafood department of your local supermarket is just defrosted frozen shrimp anyway. And just to make life easy, we always buy the frozen shrimp that's been deveined, but still has the shell on, because I like to keep the shells in a bag in the freezer and then make stock out of them. But you don't have to do that if you don't want to, because I do realize that it's weird to keep a bag of shrimp shells in one's freezer. It sort of seems a few steps shy of keeping, like, eyeballs in the freezer or something equally as morbid. But ANYWAY.

SHRIMP PRIMER!

Shrimp are sold by count, which basically means that you'll see a sign or a label or something that will say, like 12-15 count, or 35-40 count, or some other set of numbers. Those numbers tell you how many shrimps will make up one pound. So, if you buy a bag of 12-15 count shrimp, 12-15 shrimps will weigh one pound. The smaller the shrimp the less time they'll take to cook, and I don't really like to buy super tiny shrimp because they're kinda not worth it. For this recipe anything in the 20ish range will work.

Defrosting your shrimp is also super easy. Either let your frozen shrimp defrost in a bowl in the fridge overnight, or put them in a colander under a steady stream of cool water until they're all ready.

Ready? Mis en place!

This recipe definitely qualifies as easy, fast, and delicious. And the only other thing I want to mention is that it is well worth splurging on a good quality feta cheese. It makes all the difference. Also, don't buy the pre-crumbled feta; it doesn't melt too hot. For 2 servings you need:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1/8 cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon fresh dill, minced
• 3/4 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3+ cup feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large, oven-proof skillet heat up your olive oil over medium high heat, and saute the onions for 3-5 minutes until they are softened. Then, add the garlic and cook just until you can start to smell it, about 30 seconds more.





Add the tomatoes and bring them to a simmer. As soon as it starts getting bubbly reduce the heat to medium low and let that continue to bubble away for another 5-10 minutes until the juices thicken a bit. Now remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the herbs, shrimp, feta cheese, and a little salt and pepper to taste.





Now place the pan in oven and bake, uncovered, until the shrimp are cooked through. This should only take about 10-12 minutes.



And, uh, that's about it. I like to serve mine over polenta, but this could easily be eaten with pasta or rice or couscous or with nothing more than a big ol' loaf of french bread.



This recipe is so good, y'all. Promise me you'll make it, okay?