I confess that I have never cooked shrimp before in my life. I grew up in a kosher home, and therefore couldn’t eat shellfish in the house. However, because I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted outside of the house, I was thankfully introduced to a vast array of foods that I would have otherwise never experienced, including shrimp.
Despite certain objections to its menu presence, shrimp scampi quickly became a restaurant favorite for me. Frequently, it was disappointing. Restaurants would add too much butter, too much garlic, overcook the shrimp, serve too few shrimp over a veritable mountain of pasta, or otherwise mess up the dish. Side Note: I’m not really sure I philosophically agree with the idea that there can ever be too much garlic, but it has happened on occasion. But then there would be the times when it was made beautifully. Succulent, juicy shrimp seasoned with garlic, in a creamy, silky, yet tangy sauce, atop tender pasta that soaked up all the flavors so perfectly.
It was these times that have kept me addicted to shrimp scampi, and the hope of recreating the experience at home that inspired me to make my first attempt at tackling the enigma that is shrimp. For direction, I turned to the Cook’s Illustrated cookbook, The New Best Recipe, which I recently received as a graduation present. This cookbook promised seriously well-tested, well-thought-out recipes that would work at home, and I wanted my first shrimp-scampi-making experience to be a hit. Their recipe looked delicious, but I wanted to serve it over pasta, so I doubled the amount of sauce, and halved the amount of shrimp (pasta always seems to suck up so much sauce). The result: perhaps not one of the world’s most original dishes, but one that far surpassed my expectations of the delicious classic.
Adapted from The New Best Recipe. Serves 4-6.
What you need
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb extra large (21-25 per pound) shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- juice of 2 lemons (about 4 tbsp)
- 2 tbsp dry vermouth
- 3 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
- pinch cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper
- 1 lb linguine
What to do:
- Set a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.
- Heat half of the oil until hot in a large skillet on high heat. Cook half of the shrimp for about 2 minutes until just cooked through and set aside. Repeat with the other half of the shrimp. Note: doing this in batches helps ensure that the shrimp cook evenly.
- In the same skillet (now empty), melt 2 tbsp butter. Add garlic, and cook for 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and add vermouth, lemon juice, remaining butter, and cayenne, stirring constantly. Once the butter just melts, add the pasta and parsley. Toss to coat.
- Add the shrimp (and any juice they’ve released) and toss to coat, letting them just heat through with the residual heat of the pasta. Serve immediately, first plating the pasta and then placing the shrimp on top.
Butter? Check. Seafood? Check. Garlic? Check.
I’ve never had shrimp scampi before (doesn’t seem to be that common in Australia) but this recipe has all the right ingredients. Looking forward to trying it sometime!