Shrimp Scampi

This langoustine with shrimp recipe is a real treat and ready in minutes! Sear the shrimp and toss them with a luxurious lemon garlic butter sauce.

Shrimp, butter, garlic, lemon and white wine: what’s better? Yes, it’s American Italian Shrimp with shrimp, a classic that has been stealing hearts and minds for decades. There’s no one right way to cook a langoustine: it’s a thing of elusive beauty that the chef must define. But we think this version really stands out: Succulent garlic shrimp smothered in a rich, flavorful buttery sauce. Drizzle it over crusty bread or pour it over pasta: either way, it’s divine.

What are shrimp scampi anyway?

An Italian-American creation, the shrimp and scampi dish is a riff on a classic Italian preparation of scampi by cooking them with olive oil, onions, garlic and white wine. Crawfish are also mentioned crayfish: It is a small pink crustacean that looks like a large shrimp but actually belongs to the lobster family. Americans swapped shrimp for lobster, but kept both names in the dish, creating a nonsensical name that sounds more like “lobster with shrimp” or “shrimp with shrimp.”

As with any popular dish, there are many interpretations of the ingredients in a classic shrimp scampi. Most dishes contain shrimp, garlic, butter, lemon and white wine. others add onions, tomatoes, or breadcrumbs. The portion varies too: it’s usually served with pasta, but it’s not mandatory. Shrimp scampi simply refers to the shrimp butter and garlic sauce, not the pasta.

Ingredients for this Shrimp Scampi recipe

Most crawfish with shrimp: they come together in minutes! You can prepare the whole recipe in about 15 minutes. We like to use fresh shrimp here to make it quick and easy, but you can use frozen shrimp too: just make sure you thaw the shrimp beforehand. Here are the ingredients for this classic version of langoustines with shrimp (or continue with the recipe below):

• Medium sized shrimp: fresh or frozen, tailed or peeled
• White Onion
• Garlic
• Parsely
• olive oil
• Salted butter
• White wine or vegetable or chicken broth, optionally without alcohol
• Lemon peel
• salt and pepper

How to Make Shrimp Scampi: Basic Steps

Here’s a quick tour of how to prep this Shrimp Scampi recipe! Some important tips are listed below. Once you read them, go to the following recipe:

• Fry the onion and garlic, then sauté the shrimp in olive oil. You should use your largest pan for this and keep the shrimp in a single layer so they are all touching the pan.
• Just cook the shrimp and then remove them. You should be almost done because you’ll be removing them from the pan and putting them back after you’ve made the sauce.
• Prepare butter sauce. In the same pan, sauté the butter, white wine, lemon zest, and parsley into a sauce.
• Put the shrimp back into the pan and serve with the butter sauce. Serve with pasta or crusty bread (see below!).

Note on serving size

This shrimp scampi recipe uses 1 pound of shrimp for 4 servings. But if you’re feeding 4 very hungry eaters, consider increasing the amount of shrimp to 1.5 pounds. You can use the same amounts of ingredients for the sauce: just increase the salt to ¾ teaspoon kosher salt.

You can also use 16-ounce pasta instead of 8-ounce pasta and add other side dishes like a green salad or sautéed vegetables to the meal.

Serve with angel hair

Langoustines with shrimp are often served with angel hair noodles. After making this recipe several times, we found a few best practices for working with this unique type of pasta:

• Serve the pasta on the side! Attempting to mix shrimp and pasta in a pan is tricky as the pasta can clump together. more importantly, Angel hair absorbs a lot of liquid. It will therefore absorb all of the butter sauce if you let it! Best served alongside the shrimp, pouring the buttery sauce over the shrimp and pasta.
• 8 ounces is enough for 4 servings. We often make 12-16-ounce pasta for four, but angel hair expands as it cooks. It’s like getting 8+ ounces of spaghetti or linguine.
• Rinsing pasta helps. Rinsing the pasta with lukewarm water also prevents them from absorbing too much liquid. Then season with 1 tbsp olive oil and ¾ tsp kosher salt before serving as a side dish. Or use our Easy Angel Hair Pasta Recipe for dressing ideas.

More presentation suggestions

Crawfish with shrimp are ideal for a special romantic dinner or meal, but they also make for quick weekday meals! It doesn’t always have to be pasta, although it can be done! Here are our presentation suggestions for this dish:

• Serve with 8 ounces of pasta. See notes on Angel Hair Pasta above! You can also use any pasta shape and season as you like. We like to keep it pretty simple with some olive oil and salt, and then add a little extra butter sauce on top.
• Add crusty bread. Instead of pasta, crusty bread is even easier! Toast it and add a little butter, then use it for dipping.
• Or serve with rice. A non-traditional pairing is served with rice as a gluten-free option. It would be especially delicious with spinach rice.
• Add a green salad. Salads that go well together: simple rocket salad, chopped lettuce, fennel salad, frisée salad, endive salad, pear salad, kale salad or rocket salad with goat cheese.

More Shrimp Recipes

Scampi with shrimp is part of a long list of great shrimp recipes! Here are some other ways to get this tasty protein:

This shrimp scampi recipe is…

Gluten free and pescetarian.