Baked Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

Ingredients

Extra-virgin olive oil

3 large shallots, diced, about 1 cup

4 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and pepper

2 pounds large ripe tomatoes

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 ½ pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined

4 ounces Greek feta cheese

½ teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

Put 4 tablespoons olive oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Lower heat as necessary to keep mixture from browning. Remove from heat while preparing tomatoes.

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add whole tomatoes and cook for about 2 minutes, until skins loosen. Immediately plunge tomatoes in a bowl of cold water to cool, then drain. With a paring knife, core tomatoes and slip off skins. Cut tomatoes into thick wedges.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Return skillet to stove over medium-high heat. Add tomato wedges and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until mixture is juicy and tomatoes have softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to a shallow earthenware baking dish.

Put shrimp in a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, season shrimp with salt and pepper and stir to coat. Arrange shrimp over tomato mixture in one layer. Crumble cheese over surface and sprinkle with oregano.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until tomatoes are bubbling and cheese has browned slightly. Remove from oven and let dish rest for 5 minutes.

Servings

4

Source

David Tanis for the New York Times

Notes

The tomatoes from the garden make this delicious, but I believe it would be just as good with canned tomatoes or market tomatoes. I omitted the mint suggested in the recipe to be sprinkled over the dish. I found it wasn't necessary. We always have frozen shrimp in the freezer, so that makes it a go to recipe with the canned tomatoes.

Edit: I served this to a dinner guest who later looked it up on the website. He then texted me to tell me that this recipe should be designated as excellent. So, I agree that this is an excellent recipe.