Gamberoni Casalinga

A musical sounding name with a less than melodic translation -- house wife style jumbo shrimp. Doesn't exactly jump off the menu, but this simple, richly flavored dish (a variation of a Mario Batali recipe which was his variation of a recipe from the author of The Flavors of Sicily) is about the join the regular rotation (and maybe even the "company dinner" recipe file) at our house.

In a good quantity (about /4 cup) of olive oil heating in a pan I sautéed 1 diced red onion and one chopped stalk of celery and let them soften. To the vegetables I added 4 roughly chopped plum tomatoes, 1 TB of golden raisins (I'd have used currants if I'd had them), 1 TB slivered almonds (I'd have used pine nuts if I'd had them), 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp crushed red peppers, 2 TB rinsed capers, and one 1 cup dry marsala wine and brought the mixture to a boil. I let the sauce cook for about a minute and then layered in about 1 1/2 pounds of peeled deveined shrimp, S&P, and about 1 1/2 TB of butter, gave it a stir, covered the pan, and turned the heat to low. In about 5 minutes the shrimp are just cooked through and ready to be served with toasted bread or over rice.

Sweetly spiced and super simple -- flavors of Sicily at home, any night.