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Classic Shrimp Scampi
![Classic Shrimp Scampi](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/images/2022/06/02/dining/ShrimpScampi_thumb/ShrimpScampi_thumb-articleLarge-v2.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons butter
- 2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- ½cup dry white wine or broth
- ¾teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- ⅛teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1¾pounds large or extra-large shrimp, shelled
- ⅓cup chopped parsley
- Freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon
- Cooked pasta or crusty bread
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large skillet, melt butter with olive oil. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add wine or broth, salt, red pepper flakes and plenty of black pepper and bring to a simmer. Let wine reduce by half, about 2 minutes.
- Step 2
Add shrimp and sauté until they just turn pink, 2 to 4 minutes depending upon their size. Stir in the parsley and lemon juice and serve over pasta or accompanied by crusty bread.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Perfect, except.......USE THE SHELLS!!! The shrimp shells are wonderful flavor enhancers and should not be discarded-simmer the shells in the wine (add some extra wine) for ~10 minutes, strain and then discard the shells, and use the enriched wine in the recipe. Double the flavor!
JimF from Sewell
A lot of the "too little sauce" comments I see seem to reflect a missing step in the recipe: you'll notice the sauce doesn't really stick to the pasta so it feels like you have too little sauce.
You'll want to add half a cup of the cooked pasta water to the pan after adding the wine. The starch in the pasta water thickens the sauce a tiny bit and permits it to cling to the pasta. If you do this, you'll want to add 1-2 more tbsp of butter (or olive oil)
This is a terrific recipe. If you double the wine you have plenty of sauce. But less to drink.
USE THE SHELLS!!! The shrimp shells are wonderful flavor enhancers and should not be discarded-simmer the shells in the wine (add some extra wine) for ~10 minutes, strain and then discard the shells, and use the enriched wine in the recipe. Double the flavor!
simmer the shells in the wine (add some extra wine) for ~10 minutes, strain and then discard the shells, and use the enriched wine in the recipe.
add half a cup of the cooked pasta water to the pan after adding the wine. The starch in the pasta water thickens the sauce a tiny bit and permits it to cling to the pasta. If you do this, you'll want to add 1-2 more tbsp of butter (or olive oil)
This is a great recipe. However, cannot over emphasize the importance of the shrimp shell and wine stock. It makes the dish.
Make a quick shrimp stock which REALLY ups the shrimp flavor. Just sauté some shallot, add the shrimp shells and give them a quick turn, add some water/wine and herbs if you'd like, bring to a boil and simmer to taste. Very quick, very simple and makes a huge difference in the flavor. Also use wild gulf shrimp -- even frozen ones will give you the best flavor.
I've tried plenty of Scampi recipes more complex than this, but none as good. This is the quintessence of minimalist Italian cooking. I like it with rice instead of pasta, add some saffron if you want, or better yet, just bread, and some extra butter.
I just made this! Because everyone said there wasn't enough sauce, I made a few adjustments. I used 3/4 a cup of wine and let it simmer an extra minute. I also used the juice of a whole lemon and the zest of it. when it was done, I added my pasta to the pan of sauce, in addition to two-three spoonfuls of the pasta water to help thicken it. it was perfect!!!
Put shells in sauce pan with half cup of white wine, simmered while prepping the rest. Strained liquid and added to Skillet for more sauce. Used fresh hot pepper instead of flakes.
Followed suggestions to simmer shells in wine, and definitely agree that it's worth the hassle of cleaning your own shrimp. Used about 2 cups of wine for 1 lb of shrimps along with some water. The sauce had so much flavor! Everyone wanted more!
So very good.
To those who didn't have enough sauce for pasta, we increased all of the sauce ingredients by about half as the pasta does soak it up quite a bit.
Made for dinner tonight- 1 lb shrimp over 8 oz linguini for 2 of us. Added shallots and used lobster stock in lieu of wine (Better than Bouillion). Kept all else the same so we had enough to sauce the pasta. Will repeat. Husband said best scampi since we dined at Sal's in P'towne.
Use American wild caught shrimp--better flavor and no queasy thoughts about how the shrimp were raised and processed.
Nice, quick recipe. Only problem is that there is very little sauce. I think next time I would use some clam juice in the butter, oil, wine, mixture so that there would be more sauce.
What about deveining the shrimp? Actually taking the gut out. I always do that.
If you only have peeled shrimp on hand and can’t simmer the shells as other reviews recommend, anchovy fillets work great for extra flavor. Sauté with the garlic, butter, and oil. They melt right in and add a subtle oomph that doesn’t overpower the rest of the dish
Less salt
Great recipe ew a few tweaks. Def add the shells to the wine and simmer for 10 min and add more wine! I did 1.25 C, netted 3/4 C after simmering. Next time I will make it 1.5 C. The dish can handle it. Added 3 Tbsp minced shallots to the garlic, which I highly recommend. Also added fresh chopped basil at the end. Yum!
Recipe as written has little to no flavor. We had to more than double the ingredients and half the wine to get flavor and more sauce. Wine takes much longer than two minutes to reduce.
Made thisbunch of times and will continue to do so. Recipe is more a roadmap than absolute.. folks adjust as desired! Made with and without shells - way better making the sauce with shells as others outlined. Double the sauce!!! This time added lemon zest to the mixture when added garlic and it created a deep lemon flavor -spectacular. I also cook the pasta in less water and use the pasta water to make the sauce more glossy. This is a complete keeper.
Reading the comments, I doubled Olive oil, butter and wine. Seasoning remained the same as recipe. Used entire lemon vs half. It was delicious and will make again. Served over Rana fettuccine and it was perfect.
So easy and delicious
Yes, add the shells. And with so much broth (delicious!!) you’re really braiding or poaching the shrimp, right? Make extra broth. When the shrimp are all eaten (which happens very fast), use the remaining broth to make un po’ di risotto. For the cook.
Perfect! Nice and easy
Shrimp came out a bit too bouncy for my liking. Next time I would follow suggestions to use shell-on and simmer the shells with wine separately. That would both impart extra flavor and allow the shrimp to sauté rather than boil and reduce the rubbery texture. 3 stars as is with the potential to be 5 stars with the edits.
Full of flavor! Great recipe.
Sauce is great to drizzle over grilled shrimp
Cooked as written but added 1 additional clove of garlic and 1 TBSP of butter right before adding the shrimp - excellent!
Great recipe, simple and delicious, my only recommendation is to add capers
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