Baked shrimp with tomatoes and feta (garides saganaki)

 

If you've ever visited Greece, you must've had shrimp in tomato feta sauce, or Garides Saganaki as the dish it's called here. It's one of the top Greek appetizers and one of the tastiest dishes you will ever try.

You can also have this as a main dish, if you serve it with French fries (or rice).

Saganaki is a frying pan with two handles, used to cook several appetizers. Therefore, each appetizer prepared in it is called saganaki, like cheese saganaki or mussels saganaki or clams saganaki etc.

In taverns and restaurants it's not uncommon to serve the appetizer in this small skillet. Shrimp saganaki is one of our favorite dishes prepared that way. Since it was a bit difficult to find the specific special skillet in every household, many baked versions of shrimp saganaki were also developed. Roasted shrimp with feta and tomato is usually cooked in ceramic baking pans/casserole dishes. Those are baked in the oven and lack nothing in taste!

This recipe for shrimp saganaki is Panos's mother Eleni old recipe. It's a baked shrimp in tomato feta sauce recipe, prepared in the oven in a casserole dish. She was using white wine. Ouzo is also used for flavor (instead of wine), but as ouzo was not always available she preferred the wine. You can make this recipe with wine and then try it also with ouzo to see the difference.

For this shrimp dish you can either use shrimp or prawns, it really doesn't matter. Here in Greece we almost always use shrimp. It's better to use medium or large shrimps, as they have more meat, but feel free to try this with smaller shrimp that are more affordable. You can also use frozen shrimp, make sure to thaw them appropriately. We suggest that you also use the heads of the shrimps, as they have much flavor to offer.

The secret for this recipe is using a) ripe fresh grated tomatoes (they taste better if they're organic) and b) a good quality authentic (sheep's milk) feta. After all, those are the main ingredients: shrimp, feta cheese, tomatoes. So buy the best quality feta and tomatoes you are able to afford. The herbs used are mostly parsley or fennel fronds and stalks. Some people also use mint. Feel free to try them all.

Many people prefer this dish a bit spicy, so they add some red pepper flakes (chili flakes).We like it milder ourselves so we don't add them. Again, you can add as much as you like if you want a spicy result.

Make sure to have some fresh crusty bread on the side to scoop up the amazing sauce from the dish. It's absolutely divine. You can also use any leftovers as a sauce for pasta and make another delicious dish.

So let's see how to make this recipe for shrimp with feta or else garides saganaki!