Shrimp Scampi Recipe > Worst Blogger Ever

We can talk about how I am the worst blog updater ever (whoopsies!), or we can talk about the fabulous shrimp scampi I made this weekend. (Woo hoo- crossed another item off of my 52 weeks of new foods list!)

I had a small fear of cooking shrimp. Okay, I'm still a little scared of those suckers. Usually I bake it so it's perfectly cooked and delicious, but when I first started really cooking a few years ago, I got cocky and served basically completely raw shrimp in a salad. Awesome.

For this recipe, I lightly sauteed the shrimp in good olive oil and took them off the heat when they pinked up. This food actually tells you when it's done! (Be careful of reheating this recipe though- shrimp gets gummy and disgusting.) Not that you will have leftovers...

I wanted a simple, healthy fresh and classic dish for a cozy dinner party and went straight to my "Cooking 101" aka America's Test Kitchen 547985835483 page cookbook. I found this recipe, made a few tweaks and it came out pretty great! I believe Boyfriend gave this a 9/10. I was sort of pushing for a 10, but diva informed me he "doesn't give those out so easily."

I served this with Parmesan shavings, Celebrity Chef Obsession Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman's) Spinach Salad (amazing!! Ree's food is always so much prettier than mine!) and crusty garlic bread with whole roasted garlic cloves to soak up the lemony sauce.


Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (I used fairly large shrimp at 21-25 per pound)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp olive oil 
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp. dry white vermouth
• Juice of 3 lemons (mine were small when I tried this recipe, though! Put them in the microwave for 15 seconds before you squeeze- they juice better!)
• Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves (for garnish) 
• Grated lemon zest (careful! This is strong!)
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse and pat the shrimp dry. Arrange them in one layer on a serving platter or cookie tray and season both sides with salt and pepper. 

Heat  1 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium high heat. When the olive oil is shimmery, add half of the shrimp and sautee with a soft spatula and tongs until the shrimp pink up. Remove to a large bowl and repeat with the second half of the shrimp.

When the shrimp are done, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the shrimp and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. (Don't make the shrimp in advance. This recipe works best fresh!)

**NOTE: If you plan to serve the shrimp over pasta, double the ingredients in this next section. Pasta soaks up the sauce quickly! Nobody likes a dry scampi!**

In a large pan over medium heat, melt 3 Tbsp of butter (yes; not a health dish, friends). Add the garlic to the melted butter (you can do this off the heat if you tend to burn your garlic) and cook until fragrant. OFF THE HEAT, but to the hot pan, add the vermouth and remaining lemon juice and scape the flavor-packed brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the mix come to a boil and season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. 

Add the shrimp back into the pan to ensure shrimp are heated through. Add fresh parsley and lemon zest.

Serve over angel hair pasta (to which I add the last Tbsp of butter!) to make it extra delicious.