A flavorful tomato sauce that’s a cinch to make and rock shrimp that come already peeled mean a weeknight dinner recipe has never been so easy—or delicious.
Recipe information
Yield
4 Servings
Ingredients
1
⅓
½
8
1
¼
12
1
2
Preparation
Step 1
Set a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl. Working over sieve, squeeze tomatoes to release juices and break up flesh. Let tomatoes drain in sieve, collecting juices in bowl, until ready to use.
Step 2
Heat ⅓ cup oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium. Cook fennel, garlic, and half of chile, stirring often, until garlic is golden and fennel is starting to brown around the edges, 5–8 minutes. Transfer fennel mixture with a slotted spoon to a small bowl.
Step 3
Increase heat to high; cook drained tomatoes in same pot, stirring occasionally, until broken down and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add wine, scraping up browned bits, and cook until almost completely evaporated, about 1 minute. Add fennel mixture and collected tomato juices, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 5–10 minutes.
Step 4
Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until very al dente, about 3 minutes less than package directions.
Step 5
Using a spider or a slotted spoon, transfer pasta to pot with sauce; add shrimp and ½ cup pasta cooking liquid. Cook, tossing often, until pasta is al dente and coated in sauce and shrimp are cooked through, about 3 minutes. Thin sauce with more pasta cooking liquid if needed; season with salt. Remove from heat; add butter and toss to combine. Season with more salt if needed.
Step 6
Divide pasta among bowls. Top with fennel fronds and remaining chile and drizzle with oil.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (5)
Back to TopThis recipe is nearly identical to one of my favorite dishes served at the restaurant I worked at. Claire's recipe is great, but I prefer Calabrian chilis over Fresno chilis. That is the only modification I would suggest.
Anonymous
Southern Arizona
6/7/2020
I made this the first time over the holidays and it was loved by everyone! It's definitely worth the time and effort in making it.
Anonymous
Toronto
4/3/2020
Long story short: Excellent recipe, very simple and effective. Short story long: Okay I sort of had trouble and, not that it's super hard, but I've never made shrimp or finished pasta in its own sauce before which intimidated me. What I did and learned from this recipe: If I may, I would like to recommend using/getting a bottle of wine you would be happy to drink--you use very little in this recipe and a white wine pairs nicely with this dish (if you're into that, which I am). Maybe you know this, maybe you're like me and did not think about this. Also, I was not sure what the recipe meant regarding the tomatoes and the inclusion or exclusion of their various juices... Do you use the juices that the tomatoes come in? I used the juices the tomatoes came in. That is, all of the contents of my 28 oz can of tomatoes went into this recipe. Came out delicious. Back to being scared with trying new stuff. I was totally intimidated as I've never made shrimp before and have never finished cooking pasta in its own sauce. To figure out the timing, I tried boiling a couple pieces of pasta and taking them out every few minutes starting from 3 minutes before al dente and that helped me gauge what time I needed for my pasta. Also, I used huge shrimp (they only had 1 size, okay!) and was worried that 3 minutes would not be enough, so I took my pasta out a bit earlier and cooked everything together a bit longer. My times came out to be 5:30 in the water and 3:30 with the sauce and shrimp. The pasta was -slightly- overcooked (dilly-dallied with taking them out of the water...) and the shrimp were perfect. Backstory: Mom wanted something with shrimp for Mother's Day dinner so I sought the help of none other than BA's Claire Saffitz. Seeing the single 5 star review are what really pushed me to try this. I hope this encourages you to try this, also.
Anonymous
Southern California
5/13/2019
delicious and easy on the eyes! a delightful recipe and nice introduction to strozzapreti.
brushjl
solon, ohio
4/4/2018