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This Easy Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti dish turned out to be one of the easiest, fastest and the most delicious weeknight dinners. My family absolutely loved it.
Quick and Easy Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti
If you are short on time but crave real Italian pasta dish look no further. This Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti recipe will not disappoint you. The dinner will be on a table in 20 minutes.
Every weekend I make it a point to take a trip to my local Trader Joe’s supermarket to buy ingredients for the next week’s dinners.
As I’m sure most of you can attest, it’s not easy to plan ahead for an entire week and then make a shopping list to go along with it. I often ask my husband what he feels we should make for dinner during the week, and sometimes he throws out suggestions that weren’t even crossing my mind. These curve balls of his can sometimes turn out to be brilliant.
The other weekend he simply suggested: “Why don’t we have pasta with shrimp?” And I thought…why not. We rarely have shrimp. But we do love them, especially Grilled Shrimp or these Gambas al Ajillo. There was only one “but,” he needed to pick up fresh, cleaned shrimp on Tuesday night on his way home. He replied that this wasn’t a problem.
So that Tuesday I sent my husband a text message to remind him to get cleaned shrimp. And let me tell you something, he is so awesome with everything he’s helping me with that sometimes he leaves me speechless.
He has absolutely no problem with diverting on his commute home from work in the city and stopping by the local grocery store to get ingredients I may have either missed on my grocery missions or to pick up something that we need fresh. For this dish, I needed the fresh, cleaned shrimp to make this amazing spaghetti.
I came home and my husband proudly presented me with the shrimp I’d requested. However, when I looked inside the shopping bag I found cooked shrimp….Bummer.
How could I make this delicious pasta for dinner if I have cooked shrimp? My husband looked at me puzzled and said that they look pretty “clean” to him. I needed to explain the difference between cleaned shrimp and cooked shrimp.
So the solution presented itself when my amazing husband simply got back into his car and went to the store to get these cleaned shrimp. There you have it…our weeknight dinner story…:)
Thank God it came out amazing; otherwise, his second trip to the supermarket would’ve been totally worthless. This Easy Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti was so good that as I draft this post, these pictures still taunt me.
How to Make Shrimp Scampi Pasta
And it is so easy to make.
- Boil some pasta according to instructions (I used spaghetti but any long pasta will work well in this recipe);
- Just season shrimp with salt, pepper, and chili;
- In a saucepan heat up some butter and oil; and
- Add shallots, garlic, shrimp, & wine…
- Mix with pasta and some pasta water …and
- It’s done!
See the printable recipe below for more details. If you have little time during the week and want to have this excellent and easy dinner, then I encourage you to give this Easy Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti a try.
Easy Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound Spaghetti
- 2 tablespoon butter unsalted or ghee
- 2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 1 shallot small, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup white wine dry
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 10-12 Shrimp medium, fresh, cleaned
- 1/4 teaspoon ancho chili
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of salty water for pasta;
- Cook spaghetti according to instructions for al dente;
- Drain the pasta and reserve 1 cup of pasta water;
- In the meantime, in a skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil;
- Add shallots and cook for 2 minutes;
- Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute;
- Season shrimp with salt, pepper and ancho chili;
- Add shrimp to the skillet and cook on both sides until pink about 2-3 minutes;
- Remove the shrimp from the skillet and keep it warm;
- Add wine, lemon juice and bring to boil;
- Add another tablespoon of butter and olive oil;
- Return shrimp to skillet with pasta, parsley and some pasta water (add as much pasta water as you want, to create a sauce);
- Stir everything together and adjust seasoning as desired with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted on January 11, 2015, and was since updated to provide additional information.
Read about the author Edyta here or follow Eating European on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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If you like this recipe you may also like these pasta recipes:
Farfalle Pasta Salad Mediterranean Style
If I don’t have dry white wine can I substitute chicken broth?
You can but it’s not going to taste the same.
This recipe sounds delicious! I can’t wait to try it. I found your recipe on Pinterest! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Lesa. Let me know how you liked it. 🙂
I LOVE prawn linguine – it’s what I order whenever I go to my local Italian. This looks like a tasty alternative to cook at home! Great recipe 🙂
Your sauce sounds so nice and light but still so full of flavor. Such a healthy dinner.
Thank you Ginny!
This recipe uses some of my absolute favourite ingredients, I can’t wait to try it
Thanks Amy!
This recipe is totally mouthwatering! I think I know what I’m making for tea tonight!
We had a friend that brought cooked shrimp instead of raw shrimp. I said, Hello? Food Blogger? We all got a good laugh and use the cooked shrimp for appetizer! This pasta dish, though certainly required raw shrimp and looks simply divine! I might just make it dinner! Thanks for the inspiration!
It’s funny how some people make this mistake 🙂
What the difference between cooked and raw when using this recipe?
This reminds me of a prawn linguine dish at my local Italian restaurant. Lovely to see a restaurant quality meal I can make at home!
Thanks Emma!
This was delicious, ty