Shrimp Luciano
Chapter 2 — Antipasti & Starters
If you’ve ever sat shoulder-to-shoulder in a buzzing dining room in South Ozone Park, practically shouting over the clinking of cheap wine glasses, you know Shrimp Luciano. When Italian immigrants traded the delicate octopus of the old country for massive, sweet American shrimp, they grabbed a stick of butter, a heavy pour of white wine, and a handful of garlic to create a proudly American masterpiece. You build a deeply jammy, slow-simmered onion and wine sauce while your Sunday gravy works on the back burner, then drop the shrimp in for exactly three minutes before the hungry crowd descends. It comes to the table bubbling furiously, demanding to be mopped up with hot, foil-wrapped garlic bread.
Ingredients
- extra virgin olive oil4 tbsp
- unsalted butter6 tbsp
- white onions2 large
- garlic6 large clove
- crushed red pepper flakes1/2 tsp
- kosher saltto taste
- freshly cracked black pepperto taste
- tomato paste2 tbsp
- dry white wine1 cup
- crushed tomatoes1/2 cup
- jumbo shrimp2 lb
- fresh flat-leaf parsley1/2 cup
Method
- 01
Melt the olive oil and butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat.
Add the thinly sliced white onions and a generous pinch of kosher salt, letting them sweat and collapse slowly for 20 to 25 minutes until incredibly sweet, translucent, and melted into the butter.
- 02
Stir in the chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flakes, cooking until wildly fragrant.
After about 3 to 4 minutes, clear a space in the center of the pot and drop in the tomato paste, letting it fry in the fat for a minute or two until it darkens to a deep rust color.
- 03
Pour in the white wine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Let the wine simmer and reduce by half to cook off the harsh alcohol. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let this Luciano sauce simmer gently for 10 minutes to marry the flavors.
- 04
Increase the heat to medium-high and tumble all the shrimp into the bubbling sauce.
Toss the shrimp constantly for exactly 3 to 4 minutes until they curl into tight shapes and turn an opaque, vibrant pink, then pull the pot off the heat immediately.
- 05
Shower the pot with the chopped fresh parsley and give it one final toss to release the oils.
Bring the heavy Dutch oven straight to the table alongside foil-baked garlic bread, letting the buttery steam billow out as you unwrap it, and tell everyone to dig in.
Notes
The secret to proper Italian-American garlic bread is the foil wrapper.
Do not toast your garlic bread open-faced. Wrap the slathered semolina loaf tightly in aluminum foil before baking so the steam softens the crumb while the butter melts deeply into the bread, perfuming everything.
Borrow from your simmering Sunday gravy.
If you already have your mandatory four-hour Sunday gravy simmering on the next burner, skip opening a new can of crushed tomatoes and just steal a ladle of the simmering tomato sauce for this base.
From Cook Red Sauce at Home.