Rustic Shrimp Cocktail

By Mark Bittman

Updated Nov. 13, 2024

Rustic Shrimp Cocktail
Sam Kaplan for The New York Times. Food stylist: Susan Ottoviano.
Total Time
About 30 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Rating
4(273)
Comments
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This unfussy take on shrimp cocktail calls for roasting the shrimp instead of poaching it. The shrimp cook in a flash, and roasting cherry tomatoes alongside gives you a headstart on a warm, savory version of cocktail sauce. For the freshest shrimp possible, buy it frozen and thaw it yourself. If you buy it ‘‘individually quick frozen’’ in resealable bags, you can take out only as many as you want and thaw them by leaving the shrimp in the fridge for 24 hours or running them under cool water for an hour or less.

Featured in: Shrimp Is Having Its 15 Minutes

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Ingredients

Yield:Makes 4 to 6 servings
  • 1½pounds peeled shrimp
  • 1pint cherry tomatoes
  • olive oil
  • lemon juice
  • Worcestershire
  • horseradish
  • hot sauce
Ingredient Substitution Guide
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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 500.

  2. Step 2

    Put 1½ pounds peeled shrimp and 1 pint cherry tomatoes in a roasting pan; toss with olive oil.

  3. Step 3

    Roast, turning the shrimp once, until they’re pink all over, 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Mash the tomatoes in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire, horseradish and hot sauce.

  5. Step 5

    Dip in warm sauce

Ratings

4 out of 5
273 user ratings
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Comments

Emaybe

So for those who feel a bit shaky without a set recipe here’s what I did for the sauce: First, I cut the tomatoes in half before roasting and set them cut side up in the sheet pan with the hope that this would help some liquid evaporate and make the sauce a little less wet. For the cocktail sauce my amounts were approximately as follows: 2 Tbs olive oil 1.5 Tbs Worcestershire sauce 1 rounded tsp horseradish 2 tsp hot sauce A bit less than than the juice of 1 lemon Adjust to YOUR taste!

Sue

I cooked the shrimp for 4 minutes per side and they were delicious. I think they might be too dry if cooked for 15 minutes unless the temperature is lower.

Cindy

Very good, but the shrimp cook faster than the tomatoes. I put them on separate baking sheets so I could remove the shrimp sooner.

c marvin

Well.. proportions of sauce ingredients are easy to adjust as you taste. And I liked the roasted shrimp. But what about those pesky tomato skins? They don’t make the sauce easy to dip the shrimp. I put the sauce in the food processor but even that didn’t totally pulverize the tomato skins.

jackie

3/18/22 Toss tomatoes with salt and red pepper flakes and a little oil. Place on sheet pan cut side up. Roast at 450 for 10 min. Toss shrimp with salt and pepper and oil. Add to sheet pan Roast an addition 5 minutes, turning over about half way through.

jackie

3/18/22- toss tomatoes in a little oil and season with salt and red pepper flakes. Roast tomatoes only @10 min. Toss shrimp with a little oil, plus salt and pepper. Roast shrimp with tomatoes @3 min/side.

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