Spanish Shrimp with Garlic Bread Sauce – made with just 7 familiar, easy to find ingredients and fancy enough for company!
SCALE
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 slice crusty white bread, about 1 inch thick, crust removed
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley
- 1 cup almonds
- 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth (or ideally fish stock – but I couldn’t find any)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 lbs. large shrimp (16-20)
- additional bread for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bread to the oil in the pan. Fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. Place on a paper towel lined plate to cool. Turn the heat off on the oil.
- Place the fried bread in a food processor and pulse until crumbs form. Add the 3 cloves garlic, parsley, almonds, and a few tablespoons of the broth into a food processor and pulse until a paste forms.
- Pour the broth and bay leaf into the pan with the oil (if it’s too hot, the oil will splatter, so be careful) and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Stir in the bread paste and mix well – the sauce should start to thicken into a consistency almost like a light gravy or cream sauce. Add the shrimp and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and firm.
- Serve with extra bread for soaking up the sauce.
NOTES
For the best garlic bread: heat a thin layer of olive oil in a skillet. Add a smashed clove of garlic and let it saute for a few minutes to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor. Remove the garlic and fry each piece of bread in the oil until golden brown and crispy. Remove and place on paper towel lined plate. This bread is EVERYTHING. It’s so simple and perfect for serving with this recipe! Our dinner guests raved.
Variation: I also made another version of this that was equally as delicious – I added a 28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes with the oil and broth in step three and let it simmer till the tomatoes broke down a bit. I added the bread paste to the sauce as directed and let it cook down into a rich tomato sauce. It was REALLY good – even just the sauce plain was good served on bread.
