Marinated Grilled Shrimp

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• skewers

1. In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and red wine vinegar. Season with basil, salt, and cayenne pepper. Add shrimp to the bowl, and stir until evenly coated. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once or twice.

2. Preheat grill for medium heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail and once near the head. Discard marinade.

3. Lightly oil grill grate. Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

Fresh basil is a must! UPDATE: I have now modified this recipe to suit our family's taste and I have to say that it is worthy of 5* now. Instead of tomato sauce, I used a whole can of diced tomatoes, doubled the garlic, more basil, 1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce, 1 tblsn of red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup oil and pulsed the lot in my food processor.

OMG, this is hands-down the best shrimp I have ever tasted in my whole entire life. this marinade is soooooo good..I think it's the combination of all the ingredients that makes this so tasty. I brushed the left-over marinade over the shrimp while it was on the grill. TIP: even if you don't have time to let the shrimp marinate for one hour, just throw everything together and brush the rest of the marinade on the shrimp while its grilling...it still tastes amazing!!

We have used small pre-cooked shrimp and grilled it on the Foreman Grill (without skewers) and it came out great. The second time, we doubled the marinade and then cooked the shrimp and marinade in a skillet and poured it over rice. The heat made the sauce pretty thin so now I reserve 1/2 cup marinade and add one tablespoon cornstarch to it, then combine it all in the skillet. *TIP: One thing I do different is I only use a quarter or a third of the olive oil called for. It doesn't really add anything and it just kinda separates into this oily layer floating on top, not really blending with the tomato sauce. Now I usually quadruple the marinade (with the exception of the olive oil) when using the marinade as a sauce. We've also made this with small pieces of chicken and it is very good!