Ina Garten’s “Leftover” Roasted Shrimp and our Shrimp Quesadillas

“Leftover shrimp”? Not a chance! Ina’s Roasted Shrimp make Quesadillas too good for leftovers.

Does anyone ever have leftover shrimp? If anything, when you serve these as appetizers, they’re so addictive, you are more likely to have nothing but a tail leftover.  Then I proved myself wrong. I made roasted shrimp using Ina Garten’s superb recipe.  Roasting shrimp makes infinite good sense.  When you boil shrimp, you’re boiling out the flavor, all of which will be absorbed by the water they’re boiled in.  Roast shrimp and you’re roasting the flavor into the shrimp. I can almost guarantee you will never boil another shrimp once you’ve tried Ina’s recipe. And surprise! I made so many of them, I did have some beautifully roasted shrimp left over.  And with them, I made some fantastic Quesadillas pictured above.

Two Ways to Make Great Quesadillas

As you can see in the key visual, you can take a flour tortilla, fill it with the shrimp mixture of corn, cheese, and seasonings and then top it with a second tortilla.  And if you happen to be in possession of a panini maker, you’re in great shape for ‘toasting’ the one on top. But let’s face it, most people don’t own a panini maker. The alternative is to use a large non-stick sauté pan. But oh, the perils of having to flip the tortilla over while keeping the shrimp mixture intact. So on to the second method shown here. Simply put the tortilla in the non-stick pan and cover one side with the shrimp, corn, and cheese. Then gently fold the other half over it, and press it down lightly. Cover the quesadilla lightly with foil to keep it warm while you make as many others as you’d like.

A couple more hints for the day

Since discovering Ina Garten’s Roasted Shrimp cocktail, I use it every chance I get. It gives you shrimp that are truly the best I’ve ever had. And it’s very simple. But just supposing, you have no leftover shrimp on hand, and want to make this dish for two, you should roast about 8 shrimp. And if you want to give this dish a real kick, serve your quesadillas with some store-bought salsa verde.