This is a relatively easy recipe, with the only difficulty being cleaning the shrimps. If you want, you can make the recipe in the same way with crayfish or scampi, but you will have to adapt the cooking time for their larger weight (+2-3 minutes). In the recipe shown in the photos, I used gambari (a type of large shrimp found in Greece). If you use normal shrimps, you will have to calculate more shrimps per person (e.g. 6) and cook them for 4-5 minutes instead of 5-6.

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 20 shrimps
• 1 onion, chopped in small cubes
• 1 garlic clover, chopped into small pieces or mashed
• 1 shot glass of ouzo or tsipuro / 1 small glass of dry white wine
• 1 can / pack of tomato sauce or chopped tomatoes
• 6-8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 cup broth, obtaining by boiling the shrimps
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 packet of spaghettis or linguine
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt, pepper, thyme and bay
• a little spice mix

Tools

• Pot for cooking pasta with strainer
• Pan
• Spatula

Execution

Fill the pot with water and add a little salt. Put the pot on the stove to boil.

Wash the shrimps under cold water. Once the water in the pot starts boiling, toss in the shrimps and let them cook for 5-6 minutes, until they turn dark orange / red.

Remove the pot from the stove, put the cooked shrimps in a bowl and clean them by removing their heads and hard casings. Keep the water in which they were cooked, we’ll use it to cook the pasta in it. Save a cup of the water to use in the sauce.

In a pan, add a little olive oil and the onion. Saute it until it becomes slightly transparent. Add the garlic and continue sauteeing. Add the bay leaf and thyme and stir well. Add the cherry tomatoes and vegetable cube and continue stirring. Add the alcohol (I prefer ouzo) and let it evaporate almost completely. Salt and pepper, add the spice mix and throw in the tomato sauce and shrimp broth, as well as a little extra hot water. Let it cook at a low setting, to reduce the sauce and let it become thicket. Taste and if we feel it’s a little salty, add a little more water and let it cook for a little longer.

Put the pasta pot with the shrimp broth on the stove to boil and add a little water. Once the water starts boiling, toss in the pasta and cook according to the package’s directions.

While the spaghetti are being cooked, put the pan with the sauce back on the stove on low heat and add the cleaned shrimps. Make sure they are covered as much as possible by the sauce and let them warm.

Strain the spaghetti and toss them back into the pot. Add a little extra virgin olive oil and mix well. If we want, we can add the sauce to spaghetti and mix together, being careful to keep the shrimps intact, or serve separately.