Big Joe shares his ‘Shrimp a la Jimmy’ recipe for the summer

There are those who say that you can’t have a warm appetizer in the summer. That’s nonsense. Once made and served up this shrimp-based appetizer is very good. It’s simple to assemble and the flavors go very well together. Serve this with garlic butter toast points and that will take it to a wonderful level of goodness.

Jimmy Vena of Point Pleasant originally gave this recipe to me. It's such a tasty shrimp appetizer but it can easily be turned into a great meal served over pasta.

The original name of this recipe was Shrimp ala Anthony. Jimmy tells us that he created this dish while he was cooking at Anthony’s Brielle House which is unfortunately now closed.

I have made this recipe several times and from start to finish this should take about 15 minutes to make. Thanks, Jimmy, for sharing this with us. Great dish!

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You'll need:

2 lbs. of U-12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb. of salted butter
1/2 cup fine chopped fresh shallots
6 slices prosciutto (domestic is fine), cut julienne
1 cup shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock (quality purchased is fine)
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley (not curly!)
salt & pepper to flavor

How to put it together:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slowly melt 1/2 the butter in a large sauté pan. Dredge the shrimp in flour and add to the butter. Cook shrimp 1/2 way (still clear inside). Remove shrimp to a baking pan. Line shrimp into 4 rows, flat, tucked top to bottom.

Top Shrimp evenly with julienne prosciutto. Put shrimp in oven. Now start to prepare your sauce; In the sauté pan you started with, turn flame up high, add and sauté shallots, cook until clear not brown.

Deglaze pan with wine, scraping bottom for crispies. Add chicken stock and bring to boil. Add remaining butter and boil, reduce & thicken, add salt and pepper to taste and add 1/2 the parsley.

Take shrimp & prosciutto from oven. Spread mozzarella evenly over prosciutto; pour sauce evenly over all 4 rows. Return to oven to melt cheese. Plate, 1 row per order, divide sauce per serving, garnish with remaining parsley.

Take Jimmy's advice on how to make this dish perfectly every time:

This is not a make ahead dish - cook to serve in about 15 minutes. This dish is great served over Angel Hair Pasta. If you want to serve over pasta with the same sauce, prepare the same way but triple the sauce part of recipe and cook a 1/2 lb of Pasta. This was one of my most popular selling dishes and it makes me feel so good to have people years later remark how much they enjoyed it. Recipe will serve 4.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.