Shrimp

This is one time when the shrimp should be served with their shells on— messy, yes, but utterly delicious.

No trip to South Carolina’s Low-Country is complete without a nibble of the region’s famed shrimp and grits. This recipe, from the Boathouse in Charleston, South Carolina, uses smoked andouille sausage and green hot pepper sauce to provide the essential kick, while a generous cup of whipping cream mellows the heat and smoothes the grits. Serve this for a casual dinner party, or use it to liven up a midweek meal. Epicurious members also serve this with pasta or polenta.

After many rounds of tweaking and perfecting, Epicurious member Robert Belden landed on a quick and easy formula for creamy and comforting Alfredo sauce. Although bathing fresh shrimp in a velvety blanket of cream and butter is a pairing that Belden says “is tough to beat,” he admits to occasionally substituting seared scallops or grilled chicken for the shrimp. Alongside crisp homemade garlic bread, this pasta dish makes a satisfying dinner to share with a friend or keep all to yourself.

Bring the vibrant colors and fresh flavors of this Spanish dish to your table in under an hour. Spicy chorizo, fresh shrimp, roasted peppers, and tangy artichoke hearts melt together on a bed of saffron-infused rice in an easy dish, ideal for summer sharing. Personalize your paella by adding a favorite shellfish or throwing in some cooked onions.

Served cold or at room temperature, this colorful orzo is picnic and party ready. Save yourself some time—and effort—by buying peeled and deveined shrimp, and look for bocconcini, which are tiny mozzarella balls, usually sold in water. With precut veggies, this salad is a snap.

When developing this recipe, Epicurious member Joan Higgins of Pearl River, New York, decided to use extra shrimp to make sure that her diners had a piece of shrimp with each spoonful. The bisque’s base is indulgent, too—half-and-half infused with earthy nutmeg and enlivened with paprika. Even with its deep flavor and silky texture, Higgins says the best thing about this recipe is that it’s foolproof.

This tropical dish, adapted from the Mnemba Island Lodge off the coast of Zanzibar, pairs chiles-piced mangos with freshly grilled shrimp. Complex in flavor and easy in execution, this sweet, spicy, and creamy entrée makes a balanced and beautiful meal that Epicurious members make again and again.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

Editor's note: This recipe is part of a special Thanksgiving menu created by chefs Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing of MiLa restaurant in New Orleans. While traditional beignets are on the must-have list of every New Orleans tourist, we personally think flavor-wise they can be a bit one note. This version, however, is sweet and savory with a spicy dipping sauce. The addition on coconut and shrimp honor the Carribean persuasions of New Orleans cuisine.

Of all the ceviche relatives, this one is arguably the easiest and most refreshing (not to mention, as many Mexicans will tell you, a great hangover cure).

Of all the ways to prepare shrimp, the grill delivers the best flavor. Although unadorned "shrimp on the barbie" are great, an easily assembled gingery barbecue sauce makes them that much better. You can save time by buying already shelled and deveined shrimp, but our recipe developer, Alexis Touchet, who grew up in shrimp country in southwest Louisiana, thinks shell-on shrimp are better quality. Depending on where you live and what's in your market, you may not have much choice. Freshness trumps all, so don't hesitate to use your nose in deciding which shrimp to buy.

Shrimp have glutamic acid, the main taste component of umami. And at only 119 calories per 4-ounce serving, the little fellas are quite the low-cal catch.

Yes, romaine hearts are surprising in a stir-fry, but once you try their mild crunch in this fresh and lively meal, you may swear off takeout.

On my last trip to Venice I fell in love with a shrimp lasagna I tried. This recipe is my twist on that Venetian dish. If you keep frozen shrimp in the freezer, this is a very good way to use them. Be sure not to overcook the lasagna noodles when you are boiling them, as they will finish cooking when you bake the assembled dish. You will only need twelve noodles in all, but cook a few extras in case some break or tear as you are boiling them.

The colors in this pasta—the orange of the squash and shrimp against the black eggplant skins—always remind me of Halloween, which is why I often serve it for that holiday. Actually, it’s a perfect dish for any celebratory fall meal.

Alla pirata usually refers to a dish containing seafood, and because pirates were known to be hot-tempered men, the dish is usually spicy as well. You could substitute other seafood you like, such as mussels, squid, or scallops, for either the shrimp or the clams.

What began as a simple side dish with a citrusy dressing became a light but appealing entrée with the addition of quickly sautéed shrimp. This can be served warm, but it’s also nice at room temperature, making it a good option for picnics or buffet spreads.

Men sometimes complain that pasta salads aren’t a “real” meal because they’re so light. This one will make a believer out of anyone who has turned his nose up at pasta salad in the past. Meaty eggplant chunks, cannellini beans, plus lots of grilled seafood make this as filling and robust as it is attractive on the plate.

Among the many virtues of this salad is that it can be made ahead very successfully and it also looks so attractive.

Kiwifruit, lime juice, chiles, and cilantro make a tropical—and antioxidant-rich—accompaniment to simple seared shrimp; you can also use the relish to top grilled fish, or as a healthy dip with tortilla chips. Serve the shrimp and relish with black lentils and whole-wheat naan (Indian flatbread), as shown, or with brown rice and tortillas.

A cross-continental blend of flavors, this dish features a lively sauce that combines European paprika and sake or mirin (rice wine) from Japan. Turnips, popular in both European and Asian cuisines, add fiber, potassium, calcium, and vitamin C. Serve the shrimp over wholewheat pasta or brown rice.

After Mexican cuisine, Thai is the one that I consider the most expressive. I find its freshness, sharp chile accents, and cool citrus flavors habit-forming, so much so that I travel to Thailand at least four times a year. One of the most distinctive of Thai flavors is that of kaffir lime. It resembles a large key lime with deep green, warty skin and leaves that have a marvelous, haunting perfume unmatched by those of any other lime or lemon. In this filling, I use the leaf to perfume the coconut sauce that cooks the shrimp. The fruit only grows in tropical climates and the lime itself is very hard to find here, but its fresh or frozen leaves are sold at all Asian markets that stock a lot of Thai ingredients. For this filling, the leaves should be minced very finely (remove the rib) or, preferably, ground to a fine powder in a spice mill, as its flavor is so strong that any large bits of leaf will dominate every mouthful.

This combination of sweet shrimp and smoky chipotle has been the absolute favorite at Coyote Café for more than twenty years. The pairing of chipotle and seafood is common throughout Mexico. My most memorable (and outrageous) version was at a party thrown by Patricia Quintana, the famous Mexican chef and writer, for her birthday in her home state of Veracruz. She invited fifty chefs, food writers, restaurant owners, and winemakers to a feast spread out on a river bank where huge pots filled with enormous amounts of crayfish cooked over open wood fires. I must have eaten 200 crayfish, which were cooked with chipotles, roasted garlic, grilled tomatoes, and served with warm tortillas on wood tables and beer trays—and almost disappeared behind a mountain of shells. The shrimp are best when marinated for 1 to 2 hours—any longer is not necessary. For a deliciously smoky flavor, grill the shrimp rather than sautéing them on the stove.

Seafood boils are a mainstay of Southern cooking, the type of shellfish varying by region. Shrimp boils are most commonly associated with Low Country (South Carolina) cooking, while crawfish is a specialty of Louisiana. In most of these one-pot dishes, new potatoes and corncobs (and sometimes onion wedges and sausages) are first cooked in the pot, often on the grill, and the shellfish added at the end. Then everything is piled onto a platter and served with lemon wedges, melted butter, and hot sauce on the side. Despite the name of the preparation, shrimp shouldn’t actually be boiled (or even poached), since they will toughen if overcooked. And the point at which they turn from perfectly cooked to overcooked is very hard to detect when in boiling water. Here, the cooking water is spiked with a few simple aromatics, but you could use Old Bay Seasoning (follow the suggestions on the package for the amount) for classic peel-and-eat shrimp. Or replace the water with Court Bouillon (page 231). Serve chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce (recipe below) or as an ingredient in salads.