The son and husband units wanted pasta and sauce. I didn’t want to cook pasta. So, a happy medium, courtesy of the slab o’ciabatta my Mom left for me, which was screaming to be turned into garlic bread.
I also happened to have a quart of frozen marinara and two pounds of fresh 21/25 shrimp on standby. They’d make a good sauce, thought I, particularly with a hit of heat and some extra umami.
It’s easy to turn any basic tomato sauce into spicy arrabiata via a couple of smashed anchovies, some pureed garlic and a decent quantity of red pepper flakes. Just simmer the whole business together for about 10 minutes.
Why do I say pureed garlic? Well, sir, it happens I do quite a bit of Indian cooking and have taken a major liking to jarred garlic paste, which is nice and mellow. No bitterness. This is especially helpful in a recipe where the garlic isn’t cooked long enough to lose its harshness. Pick up a high-quality brand from India at your local Indian grocery and then tell me what you think. I go through this stuff like wildfire. It’s a lifesaver.
This dish calls for quite a bit of garlic. Just saying. If you want to use fresh cloves, please do, but make sure you’ve broken them down to a super-smooth consistency.
Trader Joe’s arrabiata is respectable, by the way. Rao’s marinara is exceptional, but it’s dear. Pick it up when it’s on sale. It’ll still set you back upwards of $6 or $7 a quart, but when you arrabitize it — wow!
Add a salad and you’ll have a fine dinner. However, if you overcook the shrimp you will not have a fine dinner, so please don’t.
- 1 quart hot arrabiata sauce (or marinara sauce simmered for 10 mins with a tablespoon of pureed garlic, a squeeze of anchovy paste or a crushed anchovy fillet or two, and at least a teaspoon of red pepper flakes)
- Two pounds deveined and shelled shrimp, no smaller than 21/25 (squeeze the tails off, too)
- Olive or sunflower oil for sauteing
- Three tablespoons garlic puree
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- Pinch or more of salt
- One ciabatta loaf, cut in half lengthwise and then each half cut into four slices. You should wind up with eight flat trenchers
- ½ cup good olive oil into which you have mixed two tablespoons of garlic puree, a little dried oregano and a bit of salt
- ½ cup freshly grated or shredded parmesan cheese
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Arrange bread slices on a sheet pan and brush olive oil mixture onto each
- Distribute cheese evenly onto bread slices
- Place bread in oven so it heats while you deal with the rest of the recipe
- Add olive or sunflower oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium flame until it's hot but not too hot, and then add shrimp
- Saute for about a minute, turn the flame down slightly and add the garlic, oregano and salt
- Saute until shrimp are just underdone, making sure the flame is low enough to keep the garlic from browning
- Add the hot arrabiata sauce to the shrimp, stir, put the lid on and turn off the burner
- Check bread. If tops are not slightly golden brown, turn oven up to broil or high convection for a minute or so. Don't burn the bread!
- Serve the sauce immediately in individual bowls with garlic-cheese bread on the side
