Roasted Shrimp with Feta

I may have doubted my skills in the kitchen after Tuesday night, but tonight, I'm back baby!!!

I was pretty blown away with how incredible this meal was. My husband even said that he thought this was one of best dishes I've made! Sweet! There were so many amazing flavors. You could pick out each flavor individually, but at the same time they all blended together beautifully.

The author of this cookbook pretty much nailed it on the head - "I love the Greek combination of tomatoes, garlic, oregano, wine, and feta; they enhance - but don't overpower - the briny flavor of the shrimp." I couldn't agree more! Every ingredient in this recipe complimented every other ingredient in this recipe, and together perfectly complimented the flavor of the shrimp. So delicious! We had some French bread on the side and both of us ended up sopping up every last minuscule drop of sauce left on our plates because we just couldn't get enough! I was sad when dinner was over! I want more! Our plates were so clean by the end of dinner that we probably could have just put them back up in the cupboard! (Of course we didn't actually do that.) :-)

I was missing two ingredients tonight: Pernod and fennel. Pernod is a type of liquor, a successor of absinthe. The recipe only calls for a small amount, and I read online that a lot of people have trouble finding it, so I decided not to drive around looking for it. I went to the store after my workout tonight to get the fennel, because I had forgotten to get it when I was at the store the other day, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked the gentleman working in the produce section in the grocery store, but he had never heard of it before. I had left my phone in the car, so I couldn't look up what it could be substituted with. I'm sure these two ingredients would have added some different dynamics to the dish, but it still turned out delicious without them!

Because I didn't have the fennel, I started out the cooking process by sauteing the minced garlic in the olive oil and then added the wine and went from there. The olive oil, garlic and wine all smelled so good mixed together in that skillet! The recipe is really easy to follow. I ended up not leaving the tails on the shrimp because as I was peeling the shrimp, I had trouble not pulling the tails off also. The shrimp still sat up just fine in the tomato mixture. The cookbook says that "for the 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs, remove the crusts from 4 slices of white bread and process them in a food processor fitted with the steel blade until the bread is in crumbs." I actually had some Herbed Seasoned Stuffing in the cabinet, so I used that in place of the fresh bread crumbs. The seasoning paired really well with the rest of the ingredients and added some nice flavor!

I can't get over how delicious this recipe was. I'm ready to make it again! It is a pretty quick and easy meal to put together during the week, or it can be a perfect meal to fix to wow your friends at a dinner party! Enjoy!

Roasted Shrimp with Feta
Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?
Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers in 2010.

Yield: 4 servings

4 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups medium-diced fennel
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon Pernod
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 pounds (16-20 per pound) peeled shrimp with tails on
5 ounces good feta cheese, coarsely crumbled
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 lemons

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10- or 12-inch heavy ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the fennel and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, until the fennel is tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the tomatoes with the liquid, tomato paste, oregano, Pernod, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Arrange the shrimp, tails up, in one layer over the tomato mixture in the skillet. Scatter the feta evenly over the shrimp. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, and lemon zest with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle over the shrimp.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked and the bread crumbs are golden brown. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the shrimp. Serve hot with the remaining lemon cut into wedges.