This hearty dish is a breeze and uses mostly pantry and freezer ingredients that are easy to find and keep on hand.
During the shelter-in-place, we’ve tried to limit our grocery runs and relied on pantry and freezer items often. I keep the Strianese Brand Butter Beans from Italy in our pantry and use them in several dishes. They are a nice large – but not too large – and tend to keep their shape and not become mushy like other brands I’ve tried. I’m also a big fan of their canned San Marzano tomatoes. I prefer to buy them whole and crush them myself. I swear they taste better than those that are already crushed or pureed. Lately, our grocery store has been out of my favorite brands – I gather a lot of people stuck at home hoarding San Marzanos! So I tried this fancy jar of sliced-in-half tomatoes from an artisanal farm called Masseria Mirogallo – and they were super fresh tasting for jarred tomatoes. Bonus if you have fresh parsley and some kale or spinach to saute, or a crunchy green salad to serve alongside and balance it all out. Hearty, healthy, and satisfying – think summery comfort food.
Shrimp with Butter Beans and Tomatoes
Equipment
- heavy oven proof skillet
- big bowl
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp olive oil, divided extra virgin
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- 1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes more to taste if desired
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 28 oz can or jar of whole San Marzano tomatoes crushed by hand
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 14 oz cans of butter beans
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined thawed if frozen
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Kosher salt
- fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- First, if your shrimp is frozen, place it in a big bowl of water in the sink for 10-15 minutes to thaw, then peel and devein, if needed. Drain well and put back in the big bowl.
- Combine half of the minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, shrimp and paprika in a medium bowl, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat the shrimp. Set aside.
- Preheat the broiler.
- Heat about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in the ovenproof skillet over medium heat, enough to coat the bottom. Add the red chili pepper flakes, the remaining minced garlic, and bay leaf, stirring for 1-2 minutes. Don't let the garlic burn.
- Add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Gently stir in the butter beans and broth, taking care not to smush the beans. Bring the skillet to a good simmer.
- Layer the shrimp on top of the beans and place the skillet in the oven on an upper rack.
- Broil until the shrimp are cooked through and golden, about 3 minutes.
- Drizzle with remaining olive oil and garnish with fresh parsley.