Shrimp Fra Diavolo

After the hurricane came through last week, a TON of the highways and roads were closed. I had to drive back to school from New Jersey using all back roads. The benefit? I got to drive through a bunch of farmland, and skidded to a stop when I passed a farmer’s market. I picked up a couple of Jersey tomatoes and had a great night cooking!

After I peeled and deveined the shrimp (one of my favorite kitchen chores—weird, I know), I tossed them in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

I wanted the dish to be both spicy, but filled with other warm flavors as well. So, I used fresh oregano, basil, rosemary, and flat leaf parsley.

Here are the tomatoes! Make sure to wash them well. Remove the core and ‘X’ the bottom of them. Bring water to a boil and toss them in. After about a minute or so pull them out and shock them in ice water. This is called a tomato ‘concasse’. The hot water releases the skin from the flesh. This is a skill that is handy! Here’s how you will know they are ready to come out of the water. Wait for the skin to begin to peel a bit near the ‘X’ mark. Then I usually pull one out and poke the skin. It should feel kind of loose or wrinkly. In the picture below there is a shiny poke mark. Hopefully that helps!

Don’t shock the tomatoes too long or they will become mealy! This also will happen if you boil them too long. The skin should easily peel away.

Quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds. They are bitter! Then cut the tomatoes into 1-inch pieces.

I didn’t have yellow onions on hand, but I did have a red one left! I sweated the onion down until translucent and then added 5 minced garlic cloves.

Then I added the tomatoes, a little white wine, salt, pepper, and more red pepper flakes. ‘Fra Diavolo’ means ‘brother devil’ this is a spicy tomato sauce! Let the pepper flakes cook into the sauce and taste at the end. Also, I added half of the minced herbs during the last 5 minutes of cooking, and threw the rest in at the end. Then, I added the shrimp right to the sauce, covered the pan, and let them cook!