🍤 Shrimp Scampi Linguine
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp
- 12 oz linguine
- 4 tbsp butter
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 lemon
- Fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp olive oil (pantry staple)
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Cook linguine, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water.
- Sauté garlic in butter and oil; add shrimp, cook 2 min per side.
- Toss with pasta, lemon juice, and pasta water; finish with parsley.
Tips
- Shrimp take about 2 minutes a side and go from tender to rubbery almost instantly. Pull them when they curl into a loose C — a tight O means overcooked.
- Reserve the pasta water. Scampi has no cream, so that starchy water is what turns butter and lemon into a sauce rather than a puddle.
- Add the lemon juice off the heat. Boiling it makes the flavour dull and slightly bitter.
Substitutions
- Shrimp
- Scallops (2 minutes per side), or firm white fish in chunks. For a vegetarian version, mushrooms browned hard carry the dish surprisingly well.
- Linguine
- Spaghetti, angel hair (3 minutes), or courgette noodles for low-carb. Gluten-free pasta works with extra reserved water.
- Butter
- Half butter, half olive oil is more stable and less likely to split. All olive oil works but loses the richness.
- Fresh parsley
- Basil or chives. Dried parsley adds nothing here — leave it out rather than substitute.
Storage & reheating
Best eaten immediately. Leftovers keep 2 days but the shrimp firm up — warm gently in a pan with a splash of water, never the microwave. Don't freeze.
Common questions
Fresh or frozen shrimp?
Frozen is usually better unless you live by the coast — most 'fresh' shrimp at the counter was previously frozen anyway. Thaw under cold running water in about 10 minutes.
Why is my sauce greasy instead of silky?
The butter split. Keep the heat moderate and add pasta water gradually while tossing — the starch holds the emulsion together.
What does 'scampi' actually mean?
In Italy scampi are langoustines. The garlic-butter-lemon preparation became known as 'shrimp scampi' in Italian-American cooking — literally 'shrimp langoustine' — and the name stuck.