Dump and Bake Parmesan Shrimp and Vegetable Casserole is the easiest, tastiest, seafood casserole ever! You can have this impressive dish on the dinner table in under 30 minutes. JUMP TO RECIPE
Many Italian Americans celebrate Christmas Eve with a gigantic meal featuring seven different kinds of seafood. This is known as the Feast of Seven Fishes. It’s a Roman Catholic tradition connected to the custom of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve and was likely started right here in the United States by Italian immigrants back in the early 1900’s as a way to honor their heritage. Even though both my husband and I have some Italian blood, we don’t celebrate with the wide variety of seafood that is typical of many of these feasts. Instead, our family’s simple way to keep this tradition alive is by having shrimp for dinner on Christmas Eve. In the past I’ve always made classic shrimp scampi, but this year I’m serving Dump and Bake Parmesan Shrimp and Vegetable Casserole. Despite its name, this is an elegant dish that can be scaled up to feed a crowd and is so easy to make that the recipe instructions can be summed up in one sentence: dump all ingredients into a casserole dish, stir, and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Now if that’s not simple, I don’t know what is!
One of the key ingredients in Dump and Bake Parmesan Shrimp and Vegetable Casserole is oil packed sun-dried tomatoes. This is the brand I use and the one I recommend for this dish because the sun-dried tomatoes are packed in extra virgin olive oil (versus refined oil such as sunflower oil) and have garlic and herbs added. You use the entire, undrained jar in this recipe so nothing goes to waste. The dish pictured in this post was made with asparagus but you can also use baby spinach in this recipe and it’s equally delicious.
The recipe for Dump and Bake Parmesan Shrimp and Vegetable Casserole calls for extra-jumbo shrimp. Most stores and fish markets consider “extra-jumbo” shrimp a 16/20 count. That is, each pound will have between 16 and 20 shrimp. Having said that, there is no standard sizing for shrimp. What one store/fish market calls “large” another might call “jumbo”, so when you shop for shrimp don’t look at the named size only (i.e. jumbo, extra-jumbo). Check the count per pound as well to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want. Extra-jumbo shrimp works great for this recipe because the shrimp cooks in about the same amount of time as the asparagus. If you use smaller shrimp, make the dish with baby spinach instead of asparagus and then you won’t have to worry about differing cooking times.
Dump and Bake Parmesan Shrimp and Vegetable Casserole would be fantastic served with pasta or Lemon Rice but it’s substantial enough to stand on its own too, perhaps with a piece of bread on the side. If you’d like to see other shrimp dishes check out: 15 Minute Light and Lemony Shrimp Scampi Florentine, Honeybell Baked Shrimp, Lemony Shrimp with White Beans and Farro, SunGold Kiwi Shrimp Cocktail, and Roasted Shrimp with Agave-Ginger-Soy Marinade.
- 1 pound extra jumbo shrimp (16/20 count), peeled and deveined
- 1 - 8.5 ounce jar of oil packed, julienned, sun-dried tomatoes (Don’t drain. Add entire jar.)
- 1 -14 ounce can of quartered artichoke hearts, drained
- 1 pound asparagus trimmed and cut into thirds (see notes #1) OR 2 cups (2 ounces) roughly chopped baby spinach
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon (see notes #2)
- ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Toss all ingredients together in a casserole dish or cast-iron skillet.
- Bake on bottom rack of oven for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.
2. For extra lemony flavor cut the juiced, zested lemon into quarters and add to the casserole dish.
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