Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Giant red shrimp
An aristocrat in exile, still impeccably turned out.
- Raw, just opened, with olive oil and sea salt
- Grilled thirty seconds a side
- Heads pressed into a broth
- In French
- Crevette rouge géante
- Scientific name
- Aristaeomorpha foliacea
- In the water
- Deep muddy bottoms of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, between 250 and 1,300 metres.
- Season & buying
- Spring and summer, when it moves up the slopes.
- Common length
- ~20 cm
- How to identify it
- Deep, even carmine red
Long rostrum pointing forward
Antennae longer than the body
On the plate
Sweet, melting flesh, the most prized of Mediterranean shrimp.
Avoid: Long cooking, which wastes flesh meant to be barely seared.
Sicilian gambero rosso is often eaten raw, and it is the only shrimp judged on its head, which is the best part.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
