Easy Shrimp Scampi
A simple, elegant, delicious classic! Our Easy Shrimp Scampi is a fresh bright Italian recipe that is so incredibly easy to make and can be ready and on the table in under 20 minutes!
An Italian classic for dinner! Our Easy Shrimp Scampi recipe is ready fast and is so incredibly easy to make, which is key for a weeknight dinner in this busy house, but also there’s something so simple and elegant about this meal that even though it checks all of the boxes for a weeknight meal, it feels fancy enough for a speical occasion, too!
Ingredients Needed
- Shrimp – Fresh is best for this recipe, but you can also use thawed frozen shrimp, too.
- Pasta – Linguine is our favorite for this recipe but spaghetti or angel hair would also be great!
- Chicken Stock – White wine is also a great choice but when we’re enjoying this as a family, we omit the wine. If it’s just my husband and me, then we will make it with whatever dry white wine we plan to drink with the meal!
- Butter and Oil – The use of both is important for this sauce, the oil will help prevent the butter from boiling.
- Garlic – The key to a good classic scampi is plenty of fresh garlic!
- Lemon Juice – Just enough to add some bright acidity and lemon flavor.
- Italian Seasoning, Salt, and Pepper – The simple seasonings for this dish.
- Fresh Parsley – While there is some parsley in that (hopefully homemade) Italian seasoning, nothing beats that finish of fresh parsley!
Tools Needed
(Amazon affiliate links)- You can find all of my kitchen essentials here!
Saute Pan – Use your favorite large saute pan that will be big enough to hold all of the pasta, too. We just love our Made In pans for this.
Large Pot – Use your favorite pasta cooking pot!
Easy to Make
One of the best parts of a classic shrimp scampi recipe is how incredibly easy it is to make and how fast it all comes together! The most time-consuming part of this recipe is cooking the pasta!
While the pasta is cooking, it’s just a matter of heating the oil and butter, sauteeing the shrimp, then the garlic with the seasonings, before adding the stock (or wine). Let that simmer down a bit before adding the pasta, shrimp, and finally the parsley! Just as simple as it is fast!
Recipe Tips
The French term “mise en place” means “putting in place” or gathering everything you need for a recipe before you start cooking. Used by professional chefs in professional kitchens to ensure everything is organized and ready to go, it’s also important in your home kitchen, especially for recipes like this Easy Shrimp Scampi because it all cooks so fast, you’ll want to have everything ready to go when needed!
Using a combination of butter and oil will help prevent the butter from burning, and it’s just a touch healthier to add some healthy fats in the olive oil instead of using all butter. You can use any combination of butter/oil, but we prefer a 50/50 mix.
This recipe is delicious with both, although using a high-quality white wine is more traditional. However, when we make this for the family, we use chicken stock because the alcohol in the wine does not fully cook out in the 5 minutes of simmering of the sauce. You can find out more information about cooking with wine here!
While we recommend using just a touch of pasta water in most of our pasta sauces, for this light scampi recipe, it is better without it. That’s because it ends up thinning the sauce and there’s no added cheese to this sauce which is what the starches in that reserved pasta water help with when it comes to the sauce emulsifying and clinging to the pasta for the sauce.
You can absolutely make this shrimp scampi without pasta and instead, just make the shrimp and sauce and serve it on its own or over whatever you’d like!
Easy Shrimp Scampi! So light and bright and in a beautiful garlic butter sauce.
A delicious Italian recipe ready in absolutely no time! Plus, how can you ever go wrong when you combine butter, garlic, and pasta?
Butter garlic sauce on the noodles and coating that perfectly cooked shrimp, it doesn’t get much better than that!
You Also Might Like
- Easy Coconut Curry Shrimp
- Easy Chicken Scampi
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- Fresh Homemade Pasta
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Simple yet elegant. Also, the sauce and the shrimp are delicious on their own if you’re watching carbs or can be served over mashed potatoes, rice, or just as an absolutely delicious appetizer.
This Easy Shrimp Scampi is a recipe you’ll love and want to make on repeat!
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Easy Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp deveined and peeled
- 8 oz linguine
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher saalt divided
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cup chicken stock or dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley
- kosher salt for pasta water
Instructions
- Cook Pasta: Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, per the box time. For fresh pasta, cook for only 2 minutes. (See the rest of the recipe for timing so that it's all done at the same time)
- Prep Shrimp: Season shrimp with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning.
- Cook Shrimp: Once your pot of water starts to boil, in a large saute pan, add oil and butter and turn to medium. Melt the butter in the oil. (Now add pasta, if 10 mins of cooking is required) Once all of the butter has melted, add the shrimp. Saute until pink, about 1-2 minutes on each side. Once pink, remove the shrimp, place it on a plate, and set aside.
- Create Sauce: Add garlic to the butter and oil and cook for just 30 seconds, stirring often to ensure it does not burn. Add stock (or wine), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and pepper to the pan. Turn the heat up to medium-high to allow the simmer for about 5 minutes to reduce. (Add pasta to cook if using fresh made pasta). Add lemon juice.
- Add Pasta and Shrimp: Turn the heat down to low, add pasta to the sauce, mix well. Add shrimp and parsley and coat.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Love this shimp scampi pasta! It’s gonna be perfect for the summer with the simple ingredients and no heavy sauce.
Exactly! So glad you enjoyed it, Veronika. Thanks for sharing!