# Shrimp and Sausage Fra Diavolo



## buckytom (Dec 29, 2007)

another recipe that doesn't fit under one simple category, so i put it here for ethnic: italian american food (created by an irish/norwegian american )

i happened to have some homemade sausage on hand and only a half pound of shrimp, so in they went together. you could easily make this just shrimp fra diavolo by eliminating the sausage and using a pound or more of shrimp; or another of my faves, a half pound or so each of shrimp and scallops.


1/2 pound sweet italian sausage
1/2 pound shrimp, cleaned and shelled, reserving shells for stock.
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced green bell pepper
5 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp capers
1 - 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
1 - 6 oz. can of tomato paste
1 cup water
3 tbsps evoo, divided 2 +1
salt and pepper to taste

in a small pot, bring the cup of water to a boil, add shrimp shells, cover and boil for a minute, stir, then turn off heat.

in a large saute pan, brown the sausage in 1 tbsp evoo over medium high heat, but not cooked through. set sausage aside.

add remaining 2 tbsps evoo to the pan, reduce heat to medium. add diced pepper, then onion and sweat for a minute. add sliced garlic and saute until the edges are just turning brown. 

add hot red pepper flakes, dried basil, a little salt and pepper, and the capers. stir into the peppers/onion/garlic.

stir in the can of chopped tomatoes, turn heat to medium high.

slice the browned sausage into 1/2" pucks and stir into the sauce. let simmer for a minute or two, until the sausage appears cooked through.

discard shells from stock and stir the stock into the sauce.

let simmer to reduce for a few minutes, turn heat down to medium. stir in some of the tomato paste until the sauce reaches a good thickness (you probably will not need the whole 6 oz. can). stir in shrimp, turn off heat and cover.

after a minute or two, stir and check to see if the shrimp are opaque throughout.

serve with thin spaghetti and crusty italian bread.


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## QSis (Dec 29, 2007)

Yumm!!!! (here you go, corazon - take a lesson! )

I like the amount of heat you used, bt! This would be excellent over my beloved rice, too!

Lee


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## TATTRAT (Dec 29, 2007)

Thanks, BT!


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## auntdot (Dec 29, 2007)

BT sounds great. Love sausage and peppers and put them on a roll, nothing better.

The problem we have, and we live only 50 miles from the Atlantic, is that the shrimp we get have no flavor.

Made a shrimp cocktail for Christmas and the shrimp had no shrimp flavor.

Got them in a fancy place too.

But that is the norm around here.  If we tossed them into the beloved sausage and peppers they would be lost.  Sigh.

Glad you can find shrimp that actually taste like something.


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## SierraCook (Dec 29, 2007)

*Thanks!!*

Thanks, buckytom, for sharing your recipe.  I love this type of dish.


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## buckytom (Dec 29, 2007)

thanks qsis, tatt, auntdot, and sc. if you ever make this, lemme know how it came out, and any tweaks you put in.

auntdot, the shrimp around here was pretty flavorless too for a while. especially the larger ones, 20 count and under. so i started to buy the smaller ones and they are pretty good and sweet. i've heard it said a thousand times that smaller fish, especially shellfish, taste better.

i made it with sausage which does overtake the shrimp flavor a little, but it's what i had on hand. normally, i make this with shrimp and scallops. much sweeter fish (not fishy) flavor.


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## BBQ Mikey (Dec 30, 2007)

buckytom said:


> thanks qsis, tatt, auntdot, and sc. if you ever make this, lemme know how it came out, and any tweaks you put in.
> 
> auntdot, the shrimp around here was pretty flavorless too for a while. especially the larger ones, 20 count and under. so i started to buy the smaller ones and they are pretty good and sweet. i've heard it said a thousand times that smaller fish, especially shellfish, taste better.
> 
> i made it with sausage which does overtake the shrimp flavor a little, but it's what i had on hand. normally, i make this with shrimp and scallops. much sweeter fish (not fishy) flavor.


 
I noticed the same thing about the shrimp harvest.  The smaller ones have seemed to carry a better flavor.  I did have some really nice 20 count shrimp over the holidays in cleveland and those were alittle better than in November...strange indeed.


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## GB (Dec 30, 2007)

This sounds great bucky. The one change I would make after trying it your way first is to use hot sausage instead of sweet. DW would rather the sweet though. 

I got some smaller size shrimp (can't remember the size) from Trader Joes the other day. They were flavorless too. On Friday my office took us to Legals Seafood for lunch. We got a few shrimp cocktails. The shrimp were giant and full of flavor.


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## BBQ Mikey (Dec 30, 2007)

By the way, Love Fra Diavolo.


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