Name: Gamberetti con Polenta (Shrimp and Grits)
Yield: Makes 8 appetizers or 4 mains
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 bay leaf; 1 large ripe tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped; 1 pound fresh head-on shrimp; 4 to 6 cups water; 2 tablespoons salted butter, or 2 tablespoons unsalted plus 1 teaspoon salt; Sea salt and cayenne pepper; 2 shallots or ½ small onion, peeled and chopped, about ½ cup; Reserved shrimp; 6 cups water; 1 cup dry white wine or Vermouth; A handful of fresh herbs such as thyme, parsley, oregano, and basil; 1 celery rib, broken into pieces; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 small carrot, broken into pieces; 1 small onion, unpeeled, and quartered; 3 tablespoons olive oil; Freshly squeezed juice of one lemon; 1 cup stone–ground, whole-grain corn grits; 1½ cups hot shrimp stock

Preparation info

Makes
8
appetizers

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Charleston to Phnom Penh

By John Martin Taylor

Published 2022

About

When I lived in Charleston, I helped reestablish this “national” dish of South Carolina. This is my version of a classic that is both Charleston and Liguria. You can use grits, cornmeal, or polenta in this recipe, but if you use the finer grinds, you’ll have to carefully and slowly add the meal to the pot of boiling water, or it may clump. I prefer more coarsely ground grits of dent corn because it is softer, less gritty, and more flavorful than Italian polenta, which is closer to cornmeal