Baked Mediterranean Spot Prawns

• It only has 202 calories per serving and fits into my weight-loss or weight maintenance meal plans.
• Eating spot prawns makes you feel fancy!
• It takes under 20 minutes to come together, making it perfect for a weeknight meal.
• There are only a few simple ingredients needed.
• This dish can be served as an appetizer when you have guests over, or you can eat it all to yourself.
• This is a lean protein, healthy weekday meal.
• It’s so delicious your entire family will love it!

This dish is high in lean protein and low in calories, making it a fantastic healthy choice. Prawns are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are great for your heart and your brain. They also have essential vitamins and minerals like iodine, zinc and selenium, which are great for your energy, thyroid function and immune function. They have a low mercury content compared to other types of fish. Plus, in this recipe they are topped with delicious and nutritious vegetables!!

• Olive oil
• Red onion
• Garlic
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Dried oregano
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• San Marzano tomatoes, or whole plum tomatoes
• Spot prawns
• Artichokes (Canned or jarred)
• Feta Cheese
• Lemon Juice
• Fresh flat leaf parsley, also known as Italian parsley

See recipe card for quantities.

• Cast iron skillet or oven safe pan
• Cutting board
• Sharp knife

These delicious, juicy shrimp are world renowned for having a sweet, delicate flavor. They are kind of like eating really tiny lobster tails, so what's not to like? Spot prawns are found in the deep, cold waters of the North Pacific Ocean ranging from Alaska to California. They are quite large compared to your everyday shrimp and they get their name from having distinctive spots on their bodies.

They are typically harvested in spring to early summer, making them highly sought after for those few months. You can also buy them frozen from various seafood vendors throughout the year. They do have a bit of a premium price point because of their size and delicious flavor, but trust me it’s totally worth it to treat yourself!

A unique thing about spot prawns is that when they die they release an enzyme that breaks down the meat, giving them an unpleasant mushy texture. The best way to avoid this is to remove the heads of the prawns immediately if you are dealing with live prawns. For this reason and for ease, I prefer to buy them with the heads already removed (I’m also lazy, so this definitely helps with the workload).

Gather and prepare all your ingredients and let's get started!

Make the sauce. You are going to start by making the sauce, but first, make sure you preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a cast iron or oven-safe skillet. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute, making sure not to brown the garlic, otherwise it will give off a bitter taste. Add the oregano and red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds or until they become aromatic. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you add them to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes.

Make the spot prawns. Add the spot prawns into the sauce and cover them completely in the sauce. Stir in the olives and artichoke and crumble the Ricotta Salata over top of the dish. Place the entire skillet in the oven for about 5 minutes. The sauce should be bubbly and the cheese should look a bit melty. Take the skillet out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. Top the dish with the fresh chopped parsley and lemon juice and dig in!

TIP: While the sauce is simmering, whip up some garlic bread to have on the side with your prawns. Place the garlic bread in the oven at the same time you put the prawns in the oven and it will be timed perfectly.

You absolutely need some garlic bread, focaccia bread or some kind of bread to go with this dish. There will be plenty of sauce for you to sop up and you don’t want to leave any of this dish behind. You can also serve the Mediterranean spot prawns with a side salad like this fennel, pear and celery salad to keep things a little bit lighter. And if you would like a more hearty meal, this sauce would go perfectly on spaghetti, or maybe some fusilli pasta.

• Substitute for spot prawns. Although this recipe was created with spot prawns in mind, I know that they are not always available and they can be a little bit expensive. Feel free to use any other kind of large shrimp or prawns as a substitute.
• Substitute for feta cheese. If you don’t have feta you can try shaving some Parmgiano-Reggiano or some ricotta salata.
• Add olives. Bring in even more mediterranean flavors by adding some sliced black loved after the dish comes out of the oven.

If you happen to have leftovers of this dish, which I find unlikely, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This is not meant to be frozen.

Believe it or not, prawns and shrimp are not the same thing, even though they are quite similar. Interestingly, Spot Prawns are actually a species of shrimp, but have been wrongly called prawns because of their large size, which more closely resembles prawns rather than shrimp.

The delicate, sweet flavor of the spot prawn mixed with the acidity of the tomatoes calls for a full bodied white wine, like a Chardonnay, or light to medium modified red, like a Gamay or Pinot Noir. Here are a few suggestions you could try:

• San Marzano, Edda Bianco Chardonnay, Salento, Italy
• Ornellaia, Le Volte, Tuscany, Italy
• Bread & Butter Chardonnay, Napa Valley, USA
• Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy
• Bread & Butter Pinot Noir, Napa Valley, USA

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

Tuscan Cod with Capers and Tomatoes

Mussels Fra Diavolo (Spicy Tomato Sauce)