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    Home » Recipes

    Shrimp And Polenta

    Published: Mar 9, 2022 by Sonila · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

    • 90
    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    This Shrimp and Polenta dish is the perfect seafood dinner recipe for the whole family. Shrimp is sauteed with garlic then cooked with a roasted tomato & thyme sauce. Serve the shrimp and sauce over creamy polenta made with two cheeses and garnish with your favorite herbs.

    A round white plate filled with yellowish polenta, topped with shrimp and sauce. Plate is garnished with fresh parsley.
    Shrimp And Polenta with Roasted Tomato Sauce

    Ok, now that you had a glimpse of the dish and want to make it, maybe you’re asking yourself:

    What Exactly is Polenta?

    Polenta is a cornmeal dish that originated in Northern Italy. In Europe, there are so many versions of polenta, sometimes made with grains other than corn. I grew up across the Adriatic from Italy, in Albania and we have a version of polenta (inherited by Turkish cuisine) called kaçamak. Other countries in Balkan, Mediterranean and Eastern Europe have similar dishes.

    Modern versions of polenta usually are made of a creamy polenta with some cheese for extra flavor. The cornmeal for polenta comes pre-packaged. Usually this polenta is fast to cook, but needs supervision and whisking until it thickens.

    Usually I love to cook polenta and serve right away. So if you’re having guests over, I’d time cooking the polenta right before serving dinner. If you have to cook it a little earlier, I’d add more water than what the package recommends because it thickens as it sits so it won’t have the desired consistency by the time you want to serve.

    While polenta and grits are very similar as they’re both made from corn, I feel polenta is a more refined product. It’s definitely a personal choice, so you can use grits if you’re more familiar to grits than polenta.

    A cup of uncooked polenta, you can see the coarse yellow grains.
    Uncooked Polenta

    Roasted Tomato Sauce

    While I love to cook, I’m also a busy mom with two vivacious kids. The prospect of cooking the sauce, cooking the shrimp in it, making polenta separately than putting the whole meal together had me a little discouraged. I didn’t want this Sunday meal to take hours to make!!

    So I added tomatoes, peppers, red onion and lots of herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking tray and roasted them all together. Once the vegetables cooled down a bit, I added them all to a blender and blended until I got a smooth sauce. You can store the sauce in mason jars in the refrigerator for other meals too (like pasta etc). So it’s definitely a make ahead sauce!!

    The other beautiful thing about this sauce is that it doesn’t have to taste the same all the time. I usually add any type of onion I have available. Sometimes I add mini sweet peppers and sometimes green peppers. You can add carrots to make it sweeter or peppercorn or chili to give it a kick. You can make it with just tomatoes and herbs if you don’t have anything else on hand.

    Tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs on a baking tray before roasting.
    Before Roasting
    Tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs on the baking tray after roasting.
    After Roasting
    Blended roasted veggies on a blender making an orange looking sauce.
    Blended
    Roasting Veggies for the Sauce

    Shrimp

    So lastly, let’s talk about shrimp. While growing up, I ate shrimp in a restaurant or brought from a fisherman that just docked his boat after fishing. So we had to clean the shrimp, devein and all that. By the time it was cooked and ready to eat, I wasn’t hungry anymore.

    Nowadays, I tend to buy shrimp mostly frozen but already clean and deveined, just tail on. Also, I prefer the jumbo size or the bigger the better because they shrink. They look white/grayish. Just thaw before cooking and that’s it!!

    So as a last step of preparing the meal, once polenta and sauce are ready. I saute a lot of garlic in olive oil. Once garlic releases its aroma and starts becoming golden on the edges, I add the shrimp in the skillet. I like to pat it down with paper towel beforehand to remove and water from the surface.

    Cook shrimp for few minutes on each side, flip once you see the edges becoming pink. Add sauce over once shrimp is cooked on both sides. Let cook few minutes with the sauce in low heat and adjust spices and salt to your taste:). Now your shrimp and sauce is ready to serve over the creamy polenta!!

    Sauteing garlic in olive oil.
    Sauteing Garlic
    Shrimp is added to skillet to cook with garlic. You can see the edges of the shrimp turning pink as it cooks.
    Garlic and Shrimp
    Roasted tomato sauce is poured over the skillet where shrimp cooked with garlic.
    Adding Sauce to Shrimp
    Cooking Shrimp

    Tips & Notes

    If you’ve made the recipe before, go ahead and skip straight to recipe card below. But if you’re making this dish for the first time, maybe these tips will help you plan the perfect meal:).

    • If you don’t like polenta, you can serve this shrimp dish over rice or over mashed potatoes. I occasionally just have the shrimp and sauce with some warm bread and nothing else.
    • If you are using precooked shrimp, then skip the saute process. Add the garlic to the other veggies during roasting and blend all together, then cook for few minutes the sauce with shrimp.
    • Roasted veggies – as long as you add tomato, herbs, some olive oil and salt and pepper, the rest can vary!! For example, I used mini sweet peppers but you can use bell peppers, cubanelle peppers or any type of peppers.
    • Clean the seeds from peppers and cut any green part from the tomatoes. The softer the tomatoes, the better for this roasted tomato sauce.
    A white plate showing creamy polenta topped with shrimp, sauce and garnish.

    Shrimp and Polenta

    Sonila
    This shrimp and polenta dish makes for a comforting family meal. Shrimp is sauteed with garlic and then cooked on a roasted tomato sauce, then served over creamy polenta.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 30 minutes mins
    Cook Time 20 minutes mins
    Total Time 50 minutes mins
    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Mediterranean
    Servings 4 servings
    Calories 749 kcal

    Equipment

    • 1 Blender

    Ingredients
      

    Shrimp and Roasted Tomato Sauce

    • 3 tomatoes
    • 1 red onion
    • 1 bell pepper or 4-5 mini peppers
    • 1 tsp oregano
    • 0.5 tsp Mediterranean Sea Salt
    • 10 twigs fresh thyme
    • 0.5 tsp pepper
    • red pepper flakes and peppercorn optional for spice, add those to taste optional
    • 4 tbsps olive oil (divided) extra virgin
    • 2 lbs shrimp, raw, peeled, deveined and tail on
    • 5 garlic cloves, minced
    • 2 tbsps fresh parsley, finely chopped for garnish

    Polenta

    • 1 cup polenta
    • 2.5 cups water
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
    • 1 cup grated gruyere cheese

    Instructions
     

    Shrimp and Roasted Tomato Sauce

    • Clean tomatoes, de-seed the peppers and roughly chop onion in big pieces. Add veggies to a deep baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil (1-2 tbsps), add salt, pepper and lots of herbs to your taste. In terms of herbs I prefer fresh thyme and dry oregano but you can also add basil, mint, parsley etc. Tip – for spicy sauce add both peppercorn and red pepper flakes.
    • Roast the veggies with herbs and olive oil at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Let dish cool down for a little bit and set aside. Then transfer everything on a blender and blend until sauce is creamy and smooth.
    • Add 1-2 tbsps of olive oil to a skillet, medium heat. Add minced garlic to skillet and cook until aromatic.
    • Make sure shrimp is thawed, tap with paper towel on both sides to absorb any water from surface. Add shrimp to garlic and oil and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until shrimp is pink. Then add sauce over shrimp and let the flavors combine for few minutes. Tip – add only half the sauce if you don't like a lot of sauce in your meal. Save the other half for pasta or any meal that uses tomato sauce. It stores well in a mason jar for about a week in the refrigerator.

    Polenta

    • Add water and milk to a medium size sauce pot. Once water/milk is hot but hasn't boiled yet, add polenta and lower heat to medium. Whisk slowly, but constantly until polenta thickens.
    • Add grated cheese and continue mixing to incorporate, check for salt and adjust as needed. Salt levels change from cheese to cheese.
    • Add polenta to plate, then top with shrimp and sauce. Finally garnish with chopped fresh parsley and enjoy:))

    Notes

    • You can make the polenta with just water, water + milk, water+milk+chicken stock etc. Keep liquid levels to this ratio: 1 cup of dry polenta to 3.5 cups of liquid. This ratio works perfectly if you’re serving right away. 
    • If you’re cooking the polenta a little before serving, then use this ratio: 1 cup polenta with 4 cups liquid.
    • Keep in mind that if you add chicken stock, polenta will be very rich, if you add water/milk or water/half and half polenta will be more creamy in texture. 

    Nutrition Label

    Nutrition Facts
    Shrimp and Polenta
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 749 Calories from Fat 324
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 36g55%
    Saturated Fat 14g88%
    Trans Fat 1g
    Monounsaturated Fat 16g
    Cholesterol 349mg116%
    Sodium 2111mg92%
    Potassium 802mg23%
    Carbohydrates 48g16%
    Fiber 3g13%
    Sugar 8g9%
    Protein 58g116%
    Vitamin A 2091IU42%
    Vitamin C 44mg53%
    Calcium 854mg85%
    Iron 2mg11%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 749kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 58gFat: 36gSaturated Fat: 14gMonounsaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 349mgSodium: 2111mgPotassium: 802mgFiber: 3gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 2091IUVitamin C: 44mgCalcium: 854mgIron: 2mg
    Keyword seafood over polenta, Shrimp and Polenta, Shrimp in Roasted Tomato Sauce
    Tried this recipe?Mention @mediterranean_latin_love or tag #mediterraneanlatinloveaffair!

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    Shrimp and polenta dish - food is already served on a white, round plate. This image is prepared for Pinterest because beside the image of food it shows a title bar on top and the website link in the bottom.
    Shrimp And Polenta

    Other Seafood Recipes

    I love seafood, it’s pretty typical in the Mediterranean and we consume a wide variety of seafood. If you would like to check out some of my other recipes, please see below some of my recipes. Also if you follow Mediterranean Diet, it’s very easy to adapt seafood recipes to be diet compliant:).

    • Baked Whole Red Snapper
    • Cast Iron Halibut over Couscous
    • Dijon Mustard & Tarragon Salmon
    • Shrimp in White Wine Tomato Sauce over Pasta
    • Baked Cod Fish Cakes

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    • 90

    Filed Under: Main Dishes, Mediterranean Food, Recipes Tagged With: Seafood

    About Sonila

    Mom of 2, wife, engineer, food blogger & recipe creator! Sonila was born in Albania, her heritage inspires her Mediterranean recipes while that of her husband the Latin ones. Sonila has 2 degrees in Engineering from University of Miami.

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    Sonila Zarate
    Sonila Zarate

    Mom of 2, wife, engineer, food blogger & recipe creator! Sonila was born in Albania, her heritage inspires her Mediterranean recipes while that of her husband the Latin ones. Sonila has 2 degrees in Engineering from University of Miami.

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