Spicy Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Roast

My grandmother kept a coffee can of bacon grease on the back of her stove for as long as I knew her, and next to it, more often than not, sat a ring of andouille sausage wrapped in butcher paper from the same shop she’d been going to since she was a young wife herself. Andouille was never a special occasion ingredient in her kitchen. It was just what you reached for when something needed depth, the way other people reach for salt.

I think about her kitchen every time I make this dish, which by now is often, because it’s become one of those meals Patrick requests by name. It’s a sheet pan roast, which sounds almost too easy for something that tastes this good, but that’s the trick of Cajun cooking that I grew up watching and only fully understood once I started cooking it myself: the flavor does the work, not the technique. You don’t need to be fussy with shrimp and andouille. You need good sausage, a hot oven, and the nerve to let things get a little color on them.

I make this on weeknights when we want something that feels like a treat but doesn’t ask much of us, and I make it on weekends when we have people over, because it scales up without any trouble and it looks generous piled onto a platter. Either way, I always make extra of the buttery, garlicky pan sauce that pools at the bottom, because there is always someone reaching for bread to mop it up, usually Patrick, usually before I’ve even called everyone to the table.