post updated December 2025, originally published February 2006
Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Sauce aka "Fra Diavolo" Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
- 1 28-ounce can tomatoes whole, crushed by hand
- 2 cups chicken broth or water
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- black pepper optional
- fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and sauté until shrimp just turn pink, 3 minutes. Remove shrimp from pan to a separate plate.
- Add 1 finely chopped onion and sauté until translucent, about 7 minutes. Add 4-5 minced garlic cloves and continue cooking with onions until the garlic is fragrant, another 3 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper and sauté for 2 minutes to release the fragrance.
- Add 1 28-ounce can of tomatoes that have been crushed by hand, 1-2 cups of chicken stock (depending on preferred consistency for sauce), and ¾ teaspoons sea salt. Turn up heat and bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer sauce for 20 minutes.
- Taste spicy tomato sauce and add more salt if needed. Stir in cooked shrimp and continue simmering until shrimp are completely cooked through, 3 minutes.
- Transfer Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Sauce to serving dish. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
Nutrition
Food for Afterthoughts
There has to be some sort of succinct scientific term for it.
By "it," I refer to the doing of something even though you have proclaimed to the world that you don't like to do whatever it is. I don't mean a chore like scrubbing mildew from between the tiles in your bathroom, which you don't want to do, but must, and so you do. I mean something more along the lines of, "Snowboarding?" *rolling eyes and turning up nose* "You don't need talent to snowboard - you just have to be stoned and stupid. I don't snowboard. I ski." Then when six feet of fresh powder drops, and you've trekked up the mountain with your friends, you find yourself...on a snowboard.
In the Delicious Life, it manifests itself a little differently: cooking, baking, and eating things that you have publicly declared that you don't love or cannot eat because you're allergic.
Is it punishment? Hypocrisy? Some sort of strange, sadomasochistic therapy using reverse psychology?
No, none of the above. It's shrimp in spicy tomato sauce.
Hives Mind
I am not actually sure whether I am allergic to shrimp. When I was a child and ate shrimp, I broke out in miserable hives. One would think that it would only take that very first incident to swear off shrimp for life, but I was a gambler. The strange thing was, sometimes I broke out in hives which I simply put to bed with a good, hallucinogenic dose of Benadryl, and sometimes I didn't.
Doctors and scientists told me that food allergies are curiously fickle - they can disappear into thin air, appear out of nowhere, and if you do have an anaphylactic reaction, each subsequent reaction to the same thing will be worse, possibly life-threatening. Well, that sure made every meal turn into an exciting game of Russian roulette! So after this last outbreak of bodily histamines, the perpetrator still as of yet to be determined (aw, silly health insurance *playful punch in its arm* tying up my allergist referrals like that!), I have declared myself allergic to shrimp, you know, just to be on the safe, healthy, alive side.
But I made shrimp as part of my Valentine's Day dinner anyway because I am not one who does thing with but half my ass, so since the menu included that much-maligned-by-Sarah lobster, I was going to blow out all the stops out and make potentially-hives-inducing shrimp, too!
That's right, "Danger" is my middle name. Sarah "Danger" Delicious. ;)
Anonymous says
if you deep freeze shrimp first you kill any parasitic agents ( which is a common cause of hives mistaken for a shrimp allegy). This could be your "hit and miss " allegy, if you react with fresh shrimp but not frozen it's food toxicity not an allegy. If you react to both stop eating it and get a skin test (I just got a positive result for mine today and shellfish tend to be more dangerous then say broccoli)
Anonymous says
if you deep freeze shrimp first you kill any parasitic agents ( which is a common cause of hives mistaken for a shrimp allegy). This could be your "hit and miss " allegy, if you react with fresh shrimp but not frozen it's food toxicity not an allegy. If you react to both stop eating it and get a skin test (I just got a positive result for mine today and shellfish tend to be more dangerous then say broccoli)
Kirby! says
risking your life for shrimp! you're like those great Dorito's commercials with George Hamilton... "bold AND daring"
Kevin says
That shrimp looks tasty!
EAT! says
We are on a huge shrimp eating frenzy at our house lately. And the spicier the better. Like to see you living on the edge.
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Ulla says
THat looks so great!
Ulla says
THat looks so great!
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