What a wonderful meze for your beer, wine or ouzo! Replace Kefalotyri with Romano cheese or any other hard, white medium salty cheese. The perfect nibble.

Serves: 4 Prep. time: 25′ Cooks in: 25′ Ready in: 50′

Ingredients
16 large shrimps
200 g Kefalotyri cheese, cut in 4 pieces
flour
oil for frying
1 tbsp sweet paprika
salt, freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce
500 g fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled, grated
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/5 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, grated
1/5 cup parsley, finely chopped

Method
Step 1
Remove shrimp shell, leaving head and tails. Wash, pat dry and refrigerate.

Step 2
Sauce: In a medium pan and on medium heat, heat olive oil and cook onion until translucent, stirring often for 3-4 minutes. Add grated tomatoes and tomato paste dissolved in half cup of water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 3
Transfer sauce in a baking dish and place shrimps on top. Cover with aluminium foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180oC for 15 minutes.

Step 4
In the meantime, heat one cup of frying oil in a small non-stick frying pan, brush cheese with water and dust with flour. Fry until nicely colored on both sides.

Step 5
Take shrimps out of the oven, sprinkle with parsley and top with the four pieces of fried cheese. Sprinkle with paprika and serve hot.

Photo: Vangelis Paterakis – Food styling: Antonia Kati

Και η συνταγή στα ελληνικά: Σαγανάκι γαρίδας με τηγανητό κεφαλοτύρι