Greek Style Baked Shrimp, traditionally known as shrimp saganaki (named for the traditional two-handled frying pan called sagani), is a classic Mediterranean meal of shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce with feta cheese. It’s simple, rich, and delicious, coming together almost entirely from pantry favorites.

While the recipe below doesn’t use ouzo to deglaze the shrimp, it still retains a lot of the original authenticity. The herbs and spices – garlic, chili flakes, cumin and celery salt – create a lovely balance between sweet and warming flavors, which helps to enhance the briny aspects of the shrimp. Cooking the sauce up on the stovetop before you bake the feta and shrimp helps create a depth and richness of flavor that you can draw on after adding the cheese and seafood (whether fresh or frozen).

I understand that some can’t (or don’t like to) always cook with fresh shrimp, which is perfectly okay when cooking saganaki. If you do go the frozen route, don’t worry about giving it a pre-grill before putting it into the tomato sauce, you can put it in at the baking stage. First, the shrimp are likely to be much smaller – meaning they will cook much quicker -and second, they’ve been partially cooked prior to freezing! As long as the seafood cooks through properly, you’ll still have a delicious and enjoyable meal.

While traditionally a Taverna-style appetizer of small portions, Greek Style Baked Shrimp works equally well as a main when served with crusty bread, creamy mash, or even with a pasta side. It’s a great tasting, quick and easy meal for when you have shrimp that you want to cook up quickly for the whole family with ingredients you have on hand.