Make This Smoky Shrimp Toast with Aioli and Burst Tomatoes Today!

Have you ever wondered what love tastes like?

I can tell you: aioli.

Homemade aioli, a glossy, garlicky, golden, lemony spread that’s worthy of the gods. It glides over the tongue and sends immediate joy signals to your brain. It’s the key ingredient in today’s recipe, a dish which is so good that The Grill-Meister and I once made it twice in the same week. Click here to jump to the recipe if you’re in a hurry.

I have been making the Smoky Shrimp Toast with Aioli and Burst Tomatoes for several years but haven’t published it until now because I wanted to get the aioli recipe just right.

Actually, not just right, but Goldilocks right.

And not just tasty, not just something I could make easily because I’ve done it a thousand times, but a recipe that’s repeatable and trustworthy for anyone.

Make Aioli by Hand or in the Food Processor

I spent a long time testing my aioli, making it again and again until it was right. In true Glover Gardens fashion, it is garlic- and lemon-forward. There are literally thousands of aioli recipes out there, and I’m sure all of them are good. But this one works well with modern ingredients from our standard grocery stores, and can be made in the food processor or by hand. How to choose? Make it by hand to feel an incredible sense of accomplishment and connection to your food, but make it in the food processor if you want easy perfection. It’s much easier in the food processor, and there’s no shame in that.

What Makes this Dish Great

Perhaps repeating myself here, aioli is a critical success factor in this fabulous dish. Its creaminess and one-two punch of garlic and lemon balance perfectly with the zesty smokiness of the shrimp and the sweetness of the tomatoes. The whole blessed mess of it atop a crusty, olive-oil toasted, hearty bread makes it Goldilocks-perfect. There’s a good amount of sauce, and it is definitely a fork-and-knife experience – no hand-held for this messy dish.

Other Keys to Success

In addition to the aioli, several other ingredients are key:

• Please use high-quality extra-virgin olive oil. It matters. Taste it before you use it in the aioli and make sure you like it.
• The smoked paprika is the secret ingredient that takes the flavors of the shrimp and tomato mixture over the top to culinary wonderland. Seriously, don’t make it unless you have smoked paprika. Regular paprika will not bring the party.
• You can use any thick, crusty bread, and trust me, we’ve done this toast with quite a few variations, including sourdough, but the best is a hearty, grainy bread. My favorite is a roasted sunflower seed and flax meal bread that we get from the farmers’ market in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Under no circumstances should this special dish be made with regular sandwich bread. The horror!!!!
• You can use any southwest seasoning, but I highly recommend taking a few minutes to put together a batch of our Zippy Southwest. The seasoning blend is just right with it, and you won’t be sad to have leftover Zippy in your pantry for your next tasty feast.

Recipe: Smoky Shrimp Toast with Aioli and Burst Tomatoes

Ingredients

Aioli

• 3 garlic cloves, minced very fine or crushed in a mortar and pestle
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, plus up to 1-2 tsp. more if the aioli is too thick
• ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, plus more
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Toast

• Up to 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 thick slices crusty bread (bigger is better)

Shrimp and Burst Tomatoes

• 1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails on or off according to your preference)
• 2 tsp. Zippy Southwest or your other favorite southwest seasoning
• More olive oil, if needed

• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, preferably in different colors
• 3 green onions, green and white parts, cut in ½ inch diagonal slices
• 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp wine, optional
• 1½ tsp. smoked paprika
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• Salt to taste

Plating and Garnishes (optional)

• Fresh spinach or arugula
• Red pepper flakes
• ½ cup chopped cilantro or basil, or a mix
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

Cooking Instructions

Make the aioli, either by hand or using the food processor.

By hand: Place a heavy medium on a kitchen towel. (This will keep the bowl from spinning while you’re whisking.) Add the finely minced or crushed garlic, 2 large egg yolks, 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, and ¼ tsp. salt to the bowl and whisk to combine. Whisking constantly and with vigor, stream in ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil very slowly, continuing to whisk until aioli is light and thickened. (This will take several minutes.) If the aioli is thicker than you like, whisk in a little more lemon juice, 1 tsp. at a time. Set aioli aside.

In the food processor: Add the finely minced or crushed garlic, 2 large egg yolks, 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, and ¼ tsp. salt to the work bowl and pulse a few times to combine. With the motor running, gradually stream in the ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil until the aioli thickens. Stop the motor and check for the consistency; if it is thicker than you like, add more lemon juice while the motor is running, 1 tsp. at a time. Set aioli aside.

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels, add to a bowl and season with Zippy Southwest or another southwest seasoning and set aside.

Turn the oven on the lowest “keep warm” setting and have foil handy. Add part of the ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches and adding a little more oil between batches if needed, fry the bread until golden brown and crisp, 1–2 minutes per side. Transfer to an oven-safe dish, cover with foil and put into the oven.

Add the rest of the ⅓ cup extra-virgin oil to the pan over medium-high heat, supplementing with a little more, if needed to sauté the shrimp. Arrange the seasoned shrimp in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, 2 minutes. Turn and continue to cook, tossing occasionally, until just opaque, about 2 minutes more. Transfer to an oven-safe dish, cover with foil and put into the oven.

Add remaining 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil to the same pan, then add the tomatoes in a single layer, along with the green onions. Cook, undisturbed, until blistered underneath, about 4 minutes. Add sliced garlic cloves, red wine vinegar, smoked paprika, ground cumin and red chile flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until combined and some tomatoes have burst, about 4 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring to coat, about 1 minute. Taste the sauce and add salt if necessary.

To plate, spread a thick layer of aioli over each toast. Spoon shrimp mixture on top, then scatter the garnishes and sprinkle with more mild red chile flakes. For a more colorful presentation, scatter fresh spinach or arugula on the plate before adding the toast.

Join Me in the Kitchen(s)

These pics are from a couple of different times that we made this dish. Please ignore that the sourdough bread is a little too thin to be Goldilocks perfection.

Plating the Dish

The Inspiration for Recipe

This shrimp toast was inspired by a recipe I found in Bon Appetit magazine in 2022. I have made enough changes that I can honestly call it my own, but always want to honor the provenance of an idea. All recipes are built upon the ones that came before, from the beginning of time. We taste, we tweak, we innovate and experiment, and voila! there’s a personalized creation. The original version had less spice, and I could never get the aioli right using their proportions. I had to remake it every time and add more eggs yolks, which is why I came up with my own version.

Outtakes: Some things not to do:

Don’t plate this with a side dish. It’s too crowded! My first try below, where the shrimp was served with smashed potatoes, was too much chaos on the plate. Side dishes should go on the side, and should be minimal because this shrimp toast is HEARTY.

Don’t choose a bread loaf that’s too small, or have the bread cut too thin. See how the dish looks a little lonely on the plate below?

Enjoy!

We have served this dish to family many times, and they say it is “sexy”. How can you top that???

© 2025, Glover Gardens