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Conventional cooking wisdom says that you should never pair seafood with cheese.
The one glaring example of where this convention does not hold true, and in fact begs to be broken, is with a classic Greek dish called shrimp saganaki or shrimp santorini. It pairs shrimp with tomatoes and feta cheese and is absolutely delicious in every rule-breaking way.
We found a beautiful example of this classic dish in a recipe by Ellie Krieger in a publication by Fine Cooking several years ago.
You make a quick and easy tomato sauce on the stovetop with onions, garlic, and tomatoes, then add shrimp and feta and plop it in the oven to bake. Easy!
Now my father will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t like shrimp. Most shrimp recipes I propose are usually met with that reminder and a change of subject. But this one seemed so intriguing, we had to make it.
We tried it early one afternoon so we could get good light for a photograph, and then had to taste it.
We kept tasting it, and tasting it, and then we had to call my mother over because we were well on our way to eating the whole pan.
The only thing I wish we had at the time was some crusty Italian bread to dip in the sauce.
Baked Shrimp in Tomato Feta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 14.5-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1 to 1 1/4 pounds medium sized raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (can leave tails on), thaw if frozen
- Pinch of salt, more to taste
- Pinch black pepper, more to taste
- 3 ounces feta cheese (about 2/3 cup, crumbled)
Method
1 Preheat oven to 425°F.
2 Sauté onions and garlic: Coat the bottom of a large, oven-proof skillet with oil and heat it on medium high heat. Stir in the onions and cook until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds more.
3 Add tomatoes, simmer: Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer, reduce heat and let simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the juices thicken up a bit.
4 Add feta, shrimp, herbs, put in oven and bake: Remove from heat. Stir in the herbs, shrimp, feta cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Place pan in oven and bake, uncovered, until shrimp are cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.
Serve immediately. Serve with crusty French or Italian loaf bread, pasta, or rice.
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Recipe barely adapted from Eat Smart by Taunton Press Fine Cooking.
Links:
Shrimp Scampi here on Simply Recipes
Baked Shrimp with Tomatillos here on Simply Recipes
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Baked Shrimp in Tomato Feta Sauce
One of my favorites! I love to add a squeeze of fresh lemon just before serving for even more Greek goodness! Opa!
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I’m in total awe bcz I am so low maintenance and this dish is quick and easy. I’m not a fan of dill so I omitted that and added red wine and red pepper flakes. AH MAY ZING!!!!
Thank you!!
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Wow. Im eating this at as we speak and it is very, very good. I added a 1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives and a tablespoon of capers….only because I had them and they seemed to make sense in the dish. I topped with some grated parm….but I put grated parm on almost everything.
As far as throwing it in a hot oven, I think thats the way to go. I actually put my sauce in the oven for 20 minutes after it had already cooked on the stove for 15 minutes, then took it out and added the raw shrimp and feta, and then threw it back in the hot oven for another 15 minutes.
Roasting a tomato sauce in the oven at a hot temp creates an entirely different taste than you can achieve just on the stove top. Yes, it takes a bit longer, but I think that putting the sauce in the oven is key.
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Being a Greek-Canadian living in Greece for over 21 years I make saganaki quite often and thought i would add my two cents :-) …i agree with the comment there is no need for the oven as on the stovetop is just fine…. I usually (to change things up abit add chopped green peppers with the onions) and always deglaze with a shot of ouzo before adding the tomotoes (to be honest I have never tried making shrimp saganaki with canned tomatoes). I love to see others enjoy the flavours of cooking Greek dishes…thanks !!
Very good dish. Prepped sauce in a pan on the stove then transferred to a backing dish. Added the shrimp and feta and placed in a 425 degree oven for 10-15 mins with convection on. My suggestion is to figure out a way to remove the moisture from the feta. I did press it on paper and that seemed to take out some of the moisture. Also, I purposely made large chucks (3/4-inch squares) of the feta. Looks nicer, as the edges brown up a bit with the high heat and spreads out nicely on the crusty bread. Crusty bread is perfect w this dish. A definite make again dish.
Fool around with adding a bit of very dry white wine and sipping while prepping!!!
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Hi Rich,
Sounds like you had a grand time making this–glad you shared with us!
Feat cheese differs so much from brand to brand. Some are quite dry and salty, while others are quite soft and even a little creamy. If you make this again, perhaps try switching to a different brand of feta. I like the block feta as opposed to crumbles, but sometimes there’s not much of a choice. I used to live in a very Greek neighborhood, and it was feta paradise! That is simply not the case where I live now. But maybe you are a lucky fellow which access to many fetas.