Greek shrimp saganaki with Mastelo cheese. A recipe that initially was aimed to keep you at home, in order to enjoy homemade shrimps with grilled cow milk Mastelo. To make you stay at home, what an irony, right?
These days what’s the purpose for this recipe? The purpose for this recipe is to add some flavor to your daily table, in this challenging time. That’s why I’m here, to add some flavour to your table!
And I am not alone in all this, this time I have a ”partner in crime”, Mastelo. It is not our first time cooking with Mastelo, we have made delicious pizza boat with Mastelo cheese. You can find the recipe here.
Let me introduce you Mastelo
Mastelo was first produced in 1994 and it’s a trademark for cheeses produced on the island of Chios. They are made exclusively by Konstantinos Toumazos, by high quality, raw materials. The word mastelo literally means the wooden bucket used for the milk collection and its origin is Venetian.
What is the key for their high quality? Their collaboration with local producers of cow and goat milk who supply their fresh milk daily for the production of the Mastelo Greek cheeses is a comparative advantage as the local milk is of high quality and taste.
Mastelo produces six different types of cheese. Two of them are my favorite, the cow cheese and the goat cheese. The cow cheese is a versatile cheese with multiple possibilities of use in the kitchen: it has a high melting point that makes it suitable to grill and it’s an excellent ingredient for “saganaki”. Could I resist? No. And you should either.
Recipe notes
About the shrimps
When cooking shrimps I use to keep their shells on. Why? Because I believe that when sautéing the shrimps with the shells, the sauce has much more sea flavor. The truth is that the final dish is a little bit inconvenient to be eaten, since you have to remove the shells.
If you decide to leave the shells you have to sauté them for 1 minute for each side. If you remove the shell, reduce the time to half. Whatever the case do not forget to remove the vein from the shrimps.
Thus, tilt the head, straighten the shrimp’s body with your fingers, break the tail slightly and expose the vein. If you keep the shrimp’s body completely straight and break the tail then the vein will be exposed very easily. You can also use a toothpick in order to expose the vein.
Greek shrimp saganaki with Mastelo
Greek shrimp saganaki with Mastelo cheese
Ingredients
- 300 gr shrimps
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- ¼ glass of white wine
- 400 ml tomato sauce
- 150 gr cow cheese Mastelo, in cubes
- 1 fresh onion, finely chopped
- salt
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Clean the shrimps well and remove the vein. Personally I prefer to leave the head and shell as they add flavor to the sauce.
- In a pan, over medium heat, add the olive oil. Sauté the shrimp until they for about 1 minute on each side. If you have removed the shell then sauté for 30 seconds on each side.
- Remove the shrimps and add the onions and the garlic. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, then add the wine. Stir until the alcohol evaporates.
- Add tomato sauce and cook in medium to high heat for 6-7 minutes. Add the shrimps to the pan and add salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Dice into cubes the cow cheese Mastelo and add it to the pan in order it insided to become soft and squishy.
- Remove from heat and garnish with some fresh onions.
So this was my recipe for Greek shrimp saganaki with Mastelo cow cheese. A dish in which shrimp and cheese coexist harmoniously, without covering each other as the cheese has a soft and squishy texture without melting.
I ‘ll be happy to hear from you, so please do not hesitate to comment below or contact me on Instagram, or Facebook or Twitter!
The dish looks so very tasty!
I’m not familiar with Mastelo cheese. Is the texture similar to Halloumi?
Hi Ronit, thanks for stopping by! I have never tried halloumi, but allow me to describe Mastelo cheese texture. Mastelo cow cheese has a high melting point and when cooked it has a meaty and enjoyably rubbery texture. If you try it, I am sure you will love it!
Thank you. From your description, it sounds similar to Halloumi, which is a cheese from Cyprus, and is more easily available here. However, I’ll try to look for Mastelo as well, once things will go back to normal, hopefully soon! 🙂
Things will get better soon Ronit, we just have to be patient! Stay safe and eat well! 😊
Lets hope so! 🙂