Gamberi alla Marinara

Gamberi alla Marinara

Gamberi are jumbo shrimp. The crunchy, fried shrimp blends perfectly with the slightly sweet, homemade marinara. What? I know most of you probably buy your pasta sauce. Homemade sauce has no preservatives or unnatural ingredients. It is less expensive. Most importantly, the sauce that you make yourself tastes so much better. This recipe makes a great deal of sauce. It freezes nicely.

I use Pomì tomatoes because they have no preservatives, no added citric acid and are straight from Italy. Pomì tomatoes are also in paper rather than cans. The acid in tomatoes can eat into cans and add lead to your diet. You can use sautéed zucchini and mushrooms instead of shrimp if you want this meal to be vegetarian.  

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender. Just make sure to hold the lid down because the heat will cause the lid to fly off. If the sauce isn’t thick enough for you cook it on high for the last hour without the lid. Some of the liquid will evaporate.

Serve this over a long, thin pasta.

Servings: 4-6 (lots of leftover sauce)

Time: Active: 15 minutes; Cook: 8 hours minutes; (After the sauce is finished) Dinner in 30 minutes

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring spoons and cups, a crock pot, an immersion blender, a wooden spoon, a large pot, a colander, a gallon Ziploc, a heavy, deep skillet, tongs, a slotted spoon a large paper towel lined bowl, and an oil thermometer 

Sauce Ingredients:

• 26 oz. strained tomatoes
• 1-pint cherry tomatoes
• 6 oz. tomato paste
• small yellow onion (4 oz., 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
•  ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• Optional-1 teaspoon fresh basil and ½ teaspoon fresh oregano

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Shrimp:

•  1-pound large shrimp (16-20 count) You can buy them cleaned without tails
•   Garlic salt
•    1 cup flour 
•  ¼ cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs 
•  ¼ cup corn starch 
•  Oil 
•  Long thin pasta like fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti or tagliatelle, fresh parsley, grated Parmesan

1.      Mince the onion and the garlic. Then add them and the rest of the sauce ingredients to the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the bay leaf. If you are adding fresh herbs, add them now. Use the immersion blender to smooth the sauce. Adjust the salt.

2.      Cook the pasta while the shrimp is cooking. If you use dried pasta, it should finish up just about the same time as the shrimp.

3.      Generously sprinkle the shrimp with garlic salt.

4.      Place the flour, crumbs and corn starch in the Ziploc. Shake the bag. Add the shrimp to the Ziploc bag and shake like crazy. Set aside.

5.      Add enough oil to fill the heavy skillet up half way. Heat it on medium high. When the temperature reaches 375°, the pan is ready.

6.      Shake as much flour as you can from the shrimp. Place the shrimp in a single layer in the hot oil. Fry them for 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. Don’t crowd the shrimp, they shouldn’t be touching. You may need to cook them in batches. Use the thermometer to keep the temperature between 370° and 375°. Using the slotted spoon, move them from the oil to the paper towel lined bowl. You can keep them warm by placing the bowl in the oven on the lowest setting.

7.      To plate, place the pasta in a bowl, top with a generous amount of marinara, then pile on the shrimp. Sprinkle with parsley and grated cheese.