You've probably ordered shrimp scampi at a restaurant before, but do you know how to make shrimp scampi at home? Even though it's often seen on Italian menus in the US, it isn't actually a traditional Italian dish. The word "scampi" refers to a type of langoustine in Italian, and one of the traditional ways of cooking it is sautéed in olive oil and garlic. Somewhere along the line, though, Italian-American immigrants swapped in shrimp for this traditional dish, and now we all think "shrimp scampi" means shrimp in a rich garlicky sauce with white wine.
But wherever it comes from, it's delicious and easily customizable. You can tailor the levels of garlic and spice to your taste, and you can serve it over any kind of pasta you like. You can even just pour it into a bowl and eat it with a nice hunk of bread to sop up that rich buttery sauce. Whichever way, once you start cooking, dinner will be on the table in less than 10 minutes. Here's how to make shrimp scampi:
1. Assemble Your Ingredients
Making shrimp scampi is all about speed: you do not want to step away from the stove and risk over-cooking your shrimp. So get everything you'll need ready and lined up right by the stove.
Pat your shrimp dry, and season it liberally with salt and pepper. You'll want to usepeeled and deveined shrimp, about 1/4 pound per person. (Of course you can peel and clean your own shrimp if you'd rather.)
You'll need somewhite wine, but if you don't want to open a bottle, you can alsouse dry vermouth. (Really though, why not open a bottle? You can drink it while you cook and it'll go great with your dinner.)
Press a bunch ofgarliccloves through agarlic press. Use as much garlic as you want; generally I'd recommend one to two cloves per person. Sure, you can mince them with a knife, but why do all that work when it's faster and easier to use a garlic press? There were no garlic presses allowed in the kitchen at my classic French culinary school, but I seriously love a garlic press and feel no shame in using one.
You'll need somecubed cold butter: use as much or as little as you feel comfortable with, though I promise that the more you use (within reason) the better it will taste.
If you like,crushed red pepper flakesandroughly chopped fresh parsleyare great to have ready too. They're not essential, but they'll make your dish better. If you have a spice- or green-fleck-averse child at your table, you can also add parsley and red pepper to individual servings. Once you have everything in place, you're ready to get cooking.
2. Cook your pasta
That is, if you want pasta. If you don't want pasta, skip this step and get your bread ready. Orspiralize some zucchiniif you want a carb-free option. Whatever you're serving the shrimp with, get it ready before you start cooking the shrimp.
3. Sear the shrimp
Swirl some olive oil into a heavy skillet that can accommodate the amount of shrimp you're cooking, and get it nice and hot over high heat. Toss the shrimp in and try and get it all in one even layer. Let it lie for just one minute to start browning.
4. Make the sauce
Move fast now: add the crushed garlic and red pepper flakes (if using) and start flipping all the shrimp. Add a nice glug of wine (or vermouth)—just enough to come up the sides of the shrimp about one eighth of an inch. Let the wine reduce by about half, which will happen within a minute or two if you're cooking in a nice large skillet. From the moment you add the shrimp to the pan to the moment you remove the skillet from the heat, you really don't want more than 4 minutes to pass. Remove the skillet from the heat and toss in those cold butter cubes and swirl the pan until they're melted, then add the parsley and you're done! Toss with pasta if using and serve.
