Garides Saganaki Recipe: A Greek Affair with Prawns & Feta
I have a confession to make: for years, I avoided cooking prawns at home. There was something intimidating about those beady little eyes staring back at me from the seafood counter. What if I overcooked them? What if I couldn’t properly devein them? What if—oh the horror—they weren’t actually as fresh as they looked and I poisoned my entire family? These are the things that keep an otherwise reasonable home cook up at night.
Garides Saganaki
Ingredients
- 500g raw king prawns
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 pinch freshly chopped parsley
- 250ml white wine
- 1 (400g) tin chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 (200g) pack cubed feta cheese
Instructions
- Place the prawns in a pot and add enough water to cover. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid, and set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Add the onion; cook and stir until soft. Mix in the parsley, wine, tomatoes, garlic and remaining olive oil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened.
- While the sauce is simmering, the prawns should become cool enough to handle. First remove the legs by pinching them, and then pull off the shells, leaving the head and tail on.
- When the sauce has thickened, stir in the prawns. Bring to a simmer again if the sauce has cooled with the prawns, and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the feta and remove from the heat. Let stand until the cheese starts to melt. Serve warm with slices of crusty bread.
Nutrition
But then I went to Greece. And everything changed.
It was at a tiny taverna on a side street in Athens, where the tables spilled out onto a cobblestone path and the waiter simply pointed at items on the menu rather than attempting English, that I first tasted Garides Saganaki.
The dish arrived bubbling hot in a small clay pot, the aroma of garlic, wine and tomatoes hitting me before the plate even touched the table. One bite and I knew I’d have to get over my prawn phobia, because this was something I needed to recreate in my tiny New York kitchen.
The Magic of Saganaki
Before we dive into prawns specifically, let’s talk about what “saganaki” actually means. It’s not the dish itself but the small, two-handled heavy bottomed pan used traditionally in Greek cooking. Anything cooked in this pan becomes “something saganaki.” The most famous version involves cheese that’s fried until golden and served with a dramatic flourish of flames and a squeeze of lemon.
Also Read: Chicken Enchilada Casserole Recipe
But this prawn version? It might be even better. It combines the sweetness of prawns with the acidity of tomatoes and wine, all mellowed by the salty punch of feta cheese that gets scattered on top and melts just enough to create a sauce that begs to be sopped up with crusty bread.
I’ve made this recipe approximately 17 times since that trip to Greece (not that I’m counting), tweaking it each time until I felt it captured that perfect balance of flavors I remembered.
The beauty of this dish is that it works as well for a quick weeknight dinner as it does for entertaining guests who you want to impress without actually spending hours in the kitchen.
Let’s Talk Prawns
If you share my former shellfish anxiety, let me assure you: this recipe is surprisingly forgiving. The initial boil of the prawns before they go into the sauce means it’s almost impossible to end up with rubbery results.
And leaving the heads and tails on isn’t just for aesthetics (though they do make for a prettier presentation); they add incredible flavor to the dish.
I’ve made this with both fresh and frozen prawns (defrosted, of course), and while fresh is always preferable, good-quality frozen prawns work perfectly fine.
Just make sure they’re raw—pre-cooked prawns will turn into little rubber erasers in this dish, and no amount of delicious sauce can save them.
How to Handle the Prawns
The cleaning process described in the recipe might sound a bit fiddly, but it’s actually quite therapeutic once you get into a rhythm. Pinch off the legs, peel the shells but leave those dramatic heads and tails intact. It’s like shellfish surgery, but far less stressful than it sounds.
If you’re really prawn-phobic, you could use peeled prawns with just the tails on, but you’ll lose some of that intense seafood flavor that makes this dish special.
And honestly, part of the fun of eating this is getting your hands a little messy as you pull off the heads and suck out all that flavor. (Too graphic? Sorry, but good food sometimes requires abandoning table manners.)
The Tomato Sauce Base
What makes this dish sing is the simple but perfect sauce that comes together while your prawns cool down from their initial boil. It’s a classic Mediterranean combination that proves, once again, that the best cooking often comes from just a few quality ingredients treated with respect.
The sauce begins with sautéed onions—cook them until they’re soft but not browned, as we’re going for sweetness rather than caramelization here. The white wine adds acidity and depth, while the tomatoes bring everything together. Don’t skip the fresh parsley; it adds a brightness that dried simply can’t replicate.
A note about the garlic: the recipe calls for just half a teaspoon of minced garlic, which might seem restrained for such a flavorful dish. You can certainly add more if you’re a garlic enthusiast (I won’t tell), but there’s something to be said for the subtle approach here. The garlic should complement the prawns, not overpower them.
Bringing It All Together
The magic moment in this dish happens when the hot sauce meets the feta cheese. Don’t stir it in completely—you want pockets of partially melted cheese throughout, creating little bursts of salty creaminess against the acidic tomato sauce and sweet prawns.
I find this is best served immediately, when the cheese is still in that perfect state between solid and liquid. Pair it with the best crusty bread you can find, because you’ll want to soak up every last drop of that sauce.
In fact, I recommend grabbing a loaf of sourdough on your way home if you’re planning to make this, or quickly throwing together some no-knead bread dough the night before.
A Pasta Transformation
While the traditional way to serve this is as a standalone dish with bread, I’ve discovered (as the recipe suggests) that it makes an incredible pasta sauce. The slight unconventionality of adding a bit of stock or passata to loosen it up is totally worth the departure from tradition.
Toss it with linguine or, my personal favorite, orecchiette—those little ear-shaped pasta pieces catch the sauce perfectly.
When serving it as a pasta dish, I like to reserve a little pasta cooking water to add along with the feta, which helps create an even silkier sauce that clings beautifully to each strand or shape.
My Kitchen Notes
Over my many attempts at perfecting this recipe, I’ve made some discoveries worth sharing:
- Don’t rush the sauce reduction. Those 30 minutes of simmering really do make a difference in concentrating the flavors.
- A splash more wine than called for never hurt anyone. Just saying.
- If you can’t find king prawns, large shrimp work fine—just reduce the initial boiling time to 3 minutes.
- This dish reheats surprisingly well the next day, though the prawns will be a bit less tender. The flavor, however, deepens beautifully.
I’ve served this to dinner guests who’ve requested the recipe before they’ve even finished their first bite. I’ve made it on summer evenings when it’s too hot to cook anything complicated but I still want something impressive.
I’ve even eaten it straight from the pan while standing over my stove at 10 PM after a long day, not wanting to dirty a plate. (We’ve all been there, right?)
What I love most about Garides Saganaki is how it transforms humble ingredients into something that feels special without being pretentious. It’s rustic food at its best—simple preparation that allows quality ingredients to shine. And isn’t that what good cooking is all about?
So if you, like pre-Greece me, have been hesitant about cooking prawns at home, consider this your gentle push toward shellfish confidence.
The worst that could happen is you’ll have to order pizza. The best? You’ll discover a new favorite dish that transports you to a sunny taverna by the Mediterranean, even if you’re just sitting at your kitchen counter on a Tuesday night.
Garides Saganaki (Greek Prawns with Tomatoes and Feta)
Ingredients:
- 500g raw king prawns
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 chopped onion
- A pinch of freshly chopped parsley
- 250ml white wine
- 1 (400g) tin chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 (200g) pack cubed feta cheese
- Crusty bread, for serving
Instructions:
- Place the prawns in a pot and add enough water to cover. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid (this can be used as a quick seafood stock for another recipe), and set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Add the onion; cook and stir until soft. Mix in the parsley, wine, tomatoes, garlic and remaining olive oil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened.
- While the sauce is simmering, prepare the prawns. They should become cool enough to handle. First remove the legs by pinching them, and then pull off the shells, leaving the head and tail on.
- When the sauce has thickened, stir in the prawns. Bring to a simmer again if the sauce has cooled with the prawns, and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the feta and remove from the heat. Let stand until the cheese starts to melt. Serve warm with slices of crusty bread.
Pasta Variation:
Though completely untraditional, you can add a few tablespoons of stock or passata to this recipe to make a delicious pasta sauce. Toss with pasta after adding the feta, and serve.
