Best Shrimp Scampi!

Shrimp scampi is one of those delicious dishes that’s sure to bring a smile to everyone’s face just on aroma’s alone! Shrimp sautéed in olive oil and butter with lots of garlic, shallots, clam broth, and white wine topped with fresh lemon juice, parsley and Parmesan make’s for a grand party atop a pile of linguine!

This quickie gourmet sauce I have created for you in this shrimp scampi dish is a light sauce, yet packed with flavor. The way we do this is by concentrating the juice’s released from those sautéed shrimp along with a couple of bottles of clam stock simmering for a brief seven minutes. The traditional and time consuming way to create this lovely stock would be to simmer the shrimp shells in white wine for a while like you would for a lobster bisque stock. The objective here was to take a short cut to accommodate our busy every day lives without foregoing taste by using bottled clam stock. Voilà, you have an amazing flavor base for our shrimp scampi with linguine in seven minutes.

One of my favorite way’s to serve the shrimp scampi with linguine is by offering up a Parmesan with red pepper flake’s mixed right into it. It’s nice to offer two small dishes of Parmesan, one with the pepper flakes and one without. By adding the red pepper flakes to the grated cheese guests are less likely to accidentally sprinkle on too much because it’s dispersed throughout the cheese.

You might want to try some homemade pasta to go with this wonderful shrimp scampi or even a Caesar Salad.  Some chocolate crackle cookies would be great for dessert or homemade chocolate eclairs with an incredibly easy and luscious vanilla filling. Then again there those drunk blondie bars with the bourbon caramel sauce that are to die for! Enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients for Shrimp Scampi with Linguine – 6-10 People:

• 1 – 1 1/2 lbs of peeled & deveined large shrimp (ask for a certain number of shrimp …2-5 per person depending on what other side dishes you are serving)
• 2 bottle of Snows clam broth
• 1/2 cup white wine – pinot grigio
• 4 lg garlic clove finely chopped
• 1 tbsp finely chopped shallot
• 2 lg garlic clove smashed
• 1/4  cup finely chopped FRESH FLAT LEAF Italian parsley
• 5 Tbsp salted butter
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb pasta – linguine or linguine fini
• 2 lemons
• Reggiano Parmesano
• Red pepper flakes -OPTIONAL
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Peel and devein shrimp
2. Bring large pan of salted water to a boil
3. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp butter and 2 lg crushed garlic cloves to large sauté pan over med/high heat
4. When the pan is hot add in the shrimp
5. Saute for 2 1/2 minutes per side
6. Remove shrimp and garlic – set aside
7. Add in 1 tbsp olive oil, finely chopped garlic and shallots into the same pan and saute til soft (lightly golden) for about 2-3 minutes
8. Then pour in both cans of clam juice with the garlic and shallots
9. Bring to a boil over high heat, turn down to a low simmer for 7 minutes
10. Add pasta to boiling salted water and cook until aldente (don’t over cook!)
11. Let pan with the clam broth/garlic simmer and reduce by 1/3
12. Add shrimp back into reduced clam broth/garlic
13. Add in juice from 1 whole lemon and 3 tbsp of chopped parsley to shrimp scampi
14. Add in salt and pepper here to taste
15. Simmer on LOW for 2 more minutes
16. Drain pasta and pour out pasta into a large serving platter or bowl
17. Add in 4 tbsp of butter to pasta and toss, add in salt and pepper to taste …taste the pasta and make sure the pasta is PROPERLY seasoned at this point
18. Pour the shrimp scampi mixture over the pasta
19. Sprinkle with more fresh chopped parsley and grated cheese and serve…YUM!
20. NOTE: Make sure that each person gets some of that tasty broth in their dish