We're always on the hunt for an easy, delicious dinner recipe. While many different pasta dishes full under the umbrella of easy and delicious, there are plenty of unique dishes that you may not have thought of. One such dish is shrimp scampi.
Shrimp Scampi is a delicious dish that is light yet flavorful and looks fancier and more complicated than it actually is. It's something you can make in under 30 minutes at home and still serve to guests with a restaurant-quality presentation and flavor. Ready to start cooking? Read on for our easy instructions to make this delicious dish.
- What Is Shrimp Scampi?
- The Ingredients
- Directions
- Ways to Serve Shrimp Scampi
- The Perfect Pasta for the Perfect Meal
What Is Shrimp Scampi?
If you're unfamiliar with the dish, let's start with the basics. It's a dish that is made with shrimp in a scampi sauce. Scampi is an Italian sauce made using garlic and white wine and is delicious yet simple to make. Shrimp scampi is often served over quality pasta such as linguine but can also be served alone as an appetizer.
The Ingredients
Shrimp scampi doesn't take a lot of ingredients for such a delicious dish. First, you're going to need shrimp. Peeled and deveined shrimp are a necessity, especially if you're looking for a quick dish. Let the experts take care of the gross stuff, and get right to cooking the shrimp. If you're serving as an appetizer and want to add a unique look you can leave the tails on, otherwise get them without the tails.
For the scampi sauce, you're going to need garlic, butter, and olive oil. If you like a little spice, we recommend crushed red pepper as well. And of course, you're going to need white wine. When choosing the wine, you have a few options. We recommend a crisp white wine such as a Pinot Grigio, a dry Riesling, or a Sauvignon Blanc. Finally, you'll want some salt and pepper to taste.
While these ingredients are essential for the shrimp scampi, there are other ingredients that will add to the overall dish. If you want to make the scampi a pasta meal, we recommend a noodle such as linguine or fettuccini. You can also serve it with crostini or garlic bread as an appetizer. For a healthier option it can be served with cooked veggies such as roasted summer squash.
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3-5 cloves of minced garlic depending on taste
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- ½ cup white wine
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Start by heating up olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat.
- Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes to taste, stir in for about a minute.
- Add peeled and deveined shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through and pink. Approximate cook time three to five minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium or low to keep the shrimp simmering. Add the wine to the pan and continue simmering for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Toss the shrimp in the sauce once it's thickened, and garnish with parsley and salt and pepper.
If serving with pasta:
- Choose a quality pasta such as Dagostino Linguine
- Cook pasta until it's barely al dente. This is generally 1 to 2 minutes shorter than the instructions on the package.
- Drain the pasta, and return it into the pot.
- Combine the shrimp scampi with the freshly cooked pasta and stir together.
- Serve immediately.
If serving with vegetables:
- Choose healthy vegetables such as squash or zucchini.
- Season the vegetables to taste using salt, pepper, and other seasonings.
- Sautee the vegetables in a little bit of oil and butter until warm and slightly soft.
- Add the vegetables to the shrimp scampi
- This can be combined with the pasta, or simply added to the shrimp scampi by itself
Ways to Serve Shrimp Scampi
Shrimp scampi is a great dish because it can be prepared and served in a variety of different ways. Whether you're meal prepping for the week, inviting a special someone over for a fancy dinner, or bringing an appetizer to a backyard party, shrimp scampi is sure to impress.
For a dinner party appetizer, serve shrimp scampi with some tasty bread options. Garlic bread, some toasted rosemary bread, and crostinis are all great options. Once the shrimp scampi is ready, serve in a bowl in the center of a large serving plate with the bread circled around. Use any extra sauce from the scampi on a side bowl on the same plate for dipping the bread.
If you're serving the scampi for dinner, give your guests a few options. Make a large batch of the shrimp scampi, and combine some with the linguine pasta, while leaving the rest separate. Cook up some vegetables as instructed previously, and keep those in a separate bowl. This allows the guests to have the scampi as a stand-alone, or combine it with the pasta, the vegetables, or any combination that they choose.
If meal prepping, shrimp scampi is best served with pasta. Once the pasta and the scampi are all mixed together, let it sit at room temperature until cooled and the sauce has thickened. Add the scampi into meal-sized containers and put it in the fridge. When you're ready to eat it, simply put the scampi in the microwave (or reheat it on the stovetop if you're at home) and you have a delicious meal in a couple of minutes!
The Perfect Pasta for the Perfect Meal
This shrimp scampi recipe is delicious and easy no matter how you prepare it, but we absolutely love it with pasta.
Dagostino Linguine Pasta is the highest quality pasta around, is easy to prepare, and pairs beautifully with this shrimp scampi dish and many other dishes. If you're looking for other great pasta options, we make it easy with bundles such as The Italian Classic Box, with pasta, sauce, oil, and more to make your meal simple and delicious. Bon appetite!