Shrimp scampi is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get a delicious, impressive meal on the table — and this is one of the quickest and easiest shrimp scampi recipes you’ll ever find. Just sauté plump shrimp in a zesty white wine and butter scampi sauce and toss it with garlic, parsley, chili flakes, and linguine pasta. You’ll have an unforgettable dinner ready in less than a half hour.
Here’s a little Italian lesson for you: “scampi” isn’t a way of cooking shrimp. It’s actually the Italian name for langoustines, a different type of shellfish that was originally used. When the dish was adapted stateside, Italian-American chefs started using easier-to-find shrimp instead of scampi — but they kept the old name. And now when we hear the words “shrimp scampi” our mouths start to water.
We left the tails on, because just look at those little beauties. (And they add lots of deep flavor to the sauce, too.) But if you don’t like pulling off tails while you slurp your pasta, feel free to use shrimp that already have the tails removed. You can also use frozen shrimp — just thaw them in cold, running water for five minutes before you throw them into the pan. We told you this was easy!
If you watch our video, you’ll see that even though shrimp scampi has connotations of candlelit date nights with a white tablecloth and Italian wine, there’s really nothing fancy about the cooking techniques or the ingredients — which means you basically can’t mess this up. The rich and buttery, bright and lemony, herb and garlicky flavors are bold enough for a dinner party or date night — but since our shrimp scampi just takes 30 minutes, you can also treat yourself to an Italian seafood feast any night of the week. Buon appetito!
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