This dish is one of my favorites and if you visit Greece this summer do not forget to ask for “Garidomakaronada”. Picture you sitting in a small tavern by the sunny beach, having your feet on the sand, eating shrimp pasta with a glass of Greek ouzo. Couldn’t ask for more!
This Mediterranean dish is simple, with few ingredients as always. The key to the success is to not throw away the heads, shells and tails of your shrimps. Remove them (to make your dish kid friendly), but use them to make a wonderful stock, that smells and tastes like sea. Use this stock to make the perfect tomato sauce for your pasta. As simple as that. The magic of cooking Mediterranean.
Hands on: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
500 gr. shrimps (fresh or frozen)
750 ml water (boiled)
500 gr. linguini (or other pasta)
1 onion (coarsely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (thinly sliced)
2+2 tablespoons olive oil
400gr tomato sauce (or 5 fresh tomatoes blended without skin)
1 pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon dry basil leaves or 4-5 fresh basil leaves (finely chopped)
salt
pepper
How to do it
Remove the heads, shells, and tails. This will make our dish kid-friendly.
Take a small, sharp knife and make a shallow slit along the back side of the shrimp (from the head to the tail). Expose the vein and remove.
Take a deep pot, add 750 ml water and the shrimp heads, shells and tails.
Cover the pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
When ready, drain the stock into a container and set aside until needed.
Mix in a bowl 2 tablespoons olive oil, the shrimps and season with salt and pepper.
Place a pan over high heat.
When your pan gets hot, add the shrimp and sauté for 30'' seconds on each side.
Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Place pan back over high heat.
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and sauté the coarsely chopped onion and the garlic slices.
Add the tomato paste (or the blended fresh tomatoes), a pinch of sugar, the dry basil leaves and the shrimp stock. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix well and lower heat to medium high.
Simmer for 10 minutes while stirring often.
Remove pan from heat.
Add the shrimps and mix.
Serve with some grated parmesan and finely chopped parsley leaves (if your kids like it).
Tips
Do not simmer the shrimp shells, heads and tails more than 10 minutes. Otherwise your stock will become bitter.
Do not cook the shrimps more than 30 second per side. We want them juicy and soft.
When you add the pasta to your sauce do not forget to stir oftenly.