Quick & Easy Shrimp Scampi

Saturday night around 5 pm (when the first storm hit), I decided to make myself a nice pasta dinner as fuel for the 5k I was running later that evening. After all, what better excuse to carb-load than an upcoming race?

Note: strictly speaking, a 5k isn’t a long enough race to worry about carb-loading. I just wanted to eat pasta.

My all-time favorite kind of pasta is Shrimp Scampi. In my mind, there’s nothing more delicious than seafood, pasta, garlic, and butter. It’s a little decadent, sure, but every delicious bite is totally worth it.

Shrimp Scampi is a meal that usually requires a trip to the grocery store for fresh seafood, tomatoes, etc. But on Saturday I wanted to create a quick and easy version that you can make with food you probably already have on hand in your kitchen. First off, I always keep a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer as a go-to dinner option. Think the “fresh” shrimp at the seafood counter is better? It’s not likely. Most shrimp are “individually quick frozen” (IQF) at the dock when they are caught so really the ”fresh” shrimp at the counter are just shrimp the store has defrosted for you. I prefer to keep frozen shrimp on hand instead. By all means, if you have access to some fresh, local shrimp that would be the best way to go! 🙂

So, since I already have shrimp on hand all I needed was butter (check), garlic (double check, I always have an unnecessary amount of garlic in my house), tomatoes, and pasta. Fresh tomatoes would be delicious in this dish, but I didn’t happen to have any on hand and I think using canned (or jarred) tomatoes is a great option to help make this a go-to dinner that doesn’t require a trip to the store.

I was very happy with the way this turned out! It was absolutely delicious and full of that buttery-scampi flavor that I love.

Quick & Easy Shrimp Scampi with Linguine
Serves four.

– 1 stick of butter, unsalted
– 3 cloves garlic, minced or pasted
– 1 pound frozen or fresh shrimp, raw
– 1 shallot, chopped (you can substitute about half an onion – I just love the shallot flavor!)
– 1 lemon
– ¼ cup white wine (you can substitute chicken broth or water)
– 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
– 1 pound linguine pasta (or you can substitute pasta of your choice)

Melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the shallot and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, until garlic is fragrant. Deglaze the pan with the white wine (or stock or water, if using). Add the shrimp and cook for 6-7 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink. Add the zest and juice of one lemon.

Drain the canned tomatoes in a fine mesh sieve. Add the tomatoes to the pan and heat through (just a few minutes).

Boil water and cook the pasta according to package directions. I always cook my pasta one minute less than the package directions say so that it is ‘al dente’ (i.e. still has a bite to it) and so it doesn’t over-cook when you add it to the hot sauce.

Add pasta to the shrimp and sauce and stir thoroughly to combine. Serve with bread to soak up the buttery sauce, and a side salad.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like these recipes:
~ Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce
~ Fresh Tomato Bruschetta
~ Balsamic Glazed Asparagus Pasta