This recipe for gambas al ajillo (Spanish garlic shrimp) is far more complex than the short ingredient list and rapid total time (just 15 minutes) might suggest. The key is adding garlic in two stages. First, you’ll marinate raw shrimp in grated garlic (plus paprika and chile flakes). The second dose is sautéed in olive oil until fragrant. The shrimp hits the pan next, sending the garlicky aromas into overdrive. Finished with sherry vinegar, fresh parsley, and black pepper, it’s the kind of appetizer you could make a meal of.
You can use fresh or thawed, frozen shrimp. Just be sure that they’re peeled and deveined before cooking. If you have trouble finding sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar makes a noble substitution. Don’t use cooking sherry, a very different product that doesn’t offer the same acidity and is often quite salty.
A staple of tapas bars in Spain, this quick-cooking shrimp recipe could serve as a weeknight dinner all on its own—serve it with a big green salad and some crusty bread. You could also go the route some choose for its Italian cousin, shrimp scampi, and toss with pasta. Or you could make it for a Spanish tapas party alongside a Gilda-inspired salsa, our favorite gazpacho, and potato chip tortilla Española.
Recipe information
Total Time
15 minutes
Yield
4–6 servings
Ingredients
1½
16
1
½
½
2
Preparation
Place 1½ lb. large shrimp, peeled, deveined, patted dry, in a medium bowl. Add 4 garlic cloves, finely grated, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, ½ tsp. smoked paprika, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes; season with freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat. Heat ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet, preferably high-sided, over medium-high. Cook 12 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or coarsely chopped, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add shrimp and cook, tossing occasionally, until almost cooked through, about 2 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar and cook, tossing constantly, until shrimp are cooked through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Scatter chopped parsley over; season with black pepper.