TL;DR
What it is: A savory, umami, briny seafood dish brought to life with Puttanesca sauce served over my favorite Mediterranean flavors combined into a cauliflower rice dish.
Why you’ll love it: A gorgeously plated easy weeknight dinner that can be doubled for a dinner party or brunch menu.
How to make it: Sauté cauliflower rice and flavor it with olives, sun dried tomatoes, seasonings, and basil, and top it with garlicky pan-seared shrimp served alongside a hearty Puttanesca sauce.
If you’re looking for shrimp recipes with cauliflower rice because you’ve been missing the carb-heavy usual suspects, I’ve got low carb, high protein recipes for Shrimp and Cheese Grits, Blackened Shrimp, Coconut Crusted Shrimp, shrimp with Mexican style rice, shrimp scampi with pasta).
Maybe you’ve heard of Puttanesca Sauce and you’ve wanted to give it a try. This recipe for Mediterranean shrimp cauliflower rice covered in delish puttanesca sauce has been my new summer obsession.
What even is Puttanesca sauce?
Like most iconic Italian dishes, Puttanesca sauce has conflicting origin stories…and Italians will argue about which is the correct one. I’m not going to get into the details here because we need to get to the recipe, but suffice it to say Puttanesca sauce literally translates to hooker sauce. And honey, I’m here for it. This sauce is delicious. Consider me the hooker and the hookee.
Traditional Puttanesca sauce has anchovies at the base for its umami flavor profile. My scratch recipe in Eat Happy Italian does. But when I decided to develop this recipe for a jar, I omitted the anchovies for a few reasons: Americans think they don’t like anchovies (I am not going to take on that much mistaken bias), and taking out the anchovies makes it available to more people with different dietary preferences or restrictions.
This sauce is so good it won Pasta Sauce of the Year in the 2024 Shelfie Awards by Startup CPG, an honor I will talk about until the day I die.
Let’s talk Cauliflower Rice.
Cauliflower rice is a great way to get all the rice feels without all the carbs. It’s a frequent menu item for gluten free, grain free, low carb, and keto diets.
I turn cauliflower rice into a high protein dish by adding a healthy portion of shrimp. And when you eat this recipe, you will. get. full. Isn’t that what we’re all after at the end of the day? Good food that fills our bellies? And if it’s easy to make, all the better.
As always, I’ve included the downloadable, printable PDF of this recipe, or you can print the Substack recipe card, plus I will paste the whole recipe into the bottom of the post.
Note: if you hate the flavor profile of Puttanesca (I don’t know your life, maybe olives did you dirty at some point), you can substitute any preferred red sauce. Or you can use the Shrimp Scampi sauce in Eat Happy Italian, or this spicy Shrimp Fra Diavolo.
SHRIMP PUTTANESCA WITH MEDITERRANEAN CAULIFLOWER RICE
(Serves 4)
Note: to chop basil into ribbons (AKA a “chiffonade”), lay the basil leaves on top of each other, then roll them up lengthwise like you’re rolling a cigarette or the devil’s lettuce. Then thinly chop the rolled basil leaves perpendicular to the rolled up leaves, and they will come out like ribbons.
In place of the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, you can use an equal amount of Eat Happy Kitchen Salt Dust.
If you want to make homemade Puttanesca sauce, use the recipe in Eat Happy Italian, or you can sub regular marinara, just make sure you check the label for no seed oils and no sugar added!
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 sweet onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 bags of frozen cauliflower “rice,” or grate 1 head of cauliflower on the large side of a box grater to make rice
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, loosely chopped
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2-2 pounds peeled, deveined shrimp, rinsed and patted dry, then seasoned with salt and pepper
7-10 basil leaves, chopped into ribbons for a garnish
Freshly grated parmesan, optional, for garnish
Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, flat bottomed sauté pan on medium high heat. Cook the onion and pepper until they’re soft, about 3-4 minutes, then add the bags of cauliflower rice. Toss the cauliflower rice in the heat, and season well with salt and pepper, then stir in the garlic powder and onion powder. Let cook for 8-10 minutes, only stirring every 2 minutes so that the contents of the pan can get a bit of a sear on them. Drizzle the white wine vinegar over the vegetables, tossing to stir, and season again with salt and pepper. Fold in the Kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, and toasted pine nuts. Cook for 2-3 additional minutes, then turn the heat down low while you cook the shrimp in the next step.
Prepare a second large flat bottomed sauté pan by heating the remaining olive oil to medium high heat. Add the garlic slices and cook for 1-2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Working in batches so as not to crowd the pan, sear the shrimp for 1-2 minutes per side until the shrimp is bright pink and cooked through. Season the shrimp well once more with salt and pepper.
In a separate sauce pan, bring the jar of Puttanesca sauce to a low boil, then reduce the heat and ladle in a few scoops of sauce onto the cooked shrimp, then remove the shrimp from the heat. Plate the cauliflower rice into shallow pasta bowls, then scoop the shrimp on top. Pour over the desired amount of sauce per person and serve immediately. Garnish with freshly grated parmesan, if desired.
Made this last night and it was DELICIOUS! My partner and I rate things we make 1-10, she gave it a 12!!!! She has never given anything over a 10. Anna, you are such a delight to follow and generous with your cooking talents. Thank you!
YUMMMMM