Easy Shrimp Scampi Recipe

This easy shrimp scampi recipe gives you restaurant quality seafood pasta at home. With only a handful of ingredients and a quick cook time, this delicious shrimp scampi is perfect for date night dinner at home. Make this flavorful pasta this weekend for a delicious meal in the comfort of your own home.

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I love making all kinds of pasta at home. Not just standard marinara, but fun, fancy feeling pastas like this shrimp scampi or even this ridiculously easy bruschetta pasta or this The Best Shrimp Caprese Pasta

That’s the thing- it is ridiculously easy to make a delicious pasta dinner worthy of any special occasion at home. And this shrimp scampi recipe is definitely worthy of any special occasion. It’s buttery and rich while still feeling light and bright from the lemon. A little white wine and garlic and you’re eating pasta in you’re riding your own personal train to Flavor Town. (Hi Guy Feiri!)

In my humble opinion, it’s far easier to make a special pasta dish than it is to get a babysitter for the kids, try to wriggle my way into actual pants and not pajama pants and head out for a nice dinner.

But that’s just me I guess.

Shrimp Scampi – The Easiest Fancy Pasta Ever

Or it’s not. Because this recipe is really simple and fast. Honest to goodness, it takes less time to cook the shrimp and lemon wine sauce than it does to boil the water and cook the pasta. That means this yummy dinner can be yours in less than 20 minutes.

Which again, is less time than it takes me to find a sitter or decide what pants I want to wear on a date. (Spoiler- I always end up in black leggings. ALWAYS)

And it doesn’t use any weird or hard to find ingredients. Just basic things that you can find in any grocery store.

Ingredients for Shrimp Scampi

To make a delicious, restaurant quality seafood pasta, you don’t need much just:

• Shrimp. I like to use large shrimp (20-24) count or larger if I can find a good price on them. I prefer to buy the pre cleaned shrimp but feel free to buy the ones with the shells on, just realize you will have to remove the shells and possibly devein the shrimp first.
• Lemon. Fresh lemon juice is crucial to this. Don’t substitute with a bottled juice. The juice of 1 lemon should be enough. For an extra pop of bright lemon flavor, add the zest of the lemon too.
• Butter. 4 tablespoons of butter creates the rich base of the scampi sauce. I prefer to use unsalted butter so you can better control how salty your pasta is.
• White Wine. Scampi traditionally uses a dry white wine, but use any white wine you enjoy drinking. I personally like Reisling and Pinot Grigio so that’s often what I use.
• Garlic. Fresh garlic and lots of it. I almost always press my garlic when I cook with it so it almost melts into the sauce. If you want a more subtle garlic flavor, you could lightly smash a couple of whole peeled garlic cloves with the back of a knife to release the flavor. Then cook the shrimp and sauce with the cloves in the pan and pull them out prior to serving.
• Pasta. I like linguine in shrimp scampi. The thicker noodle stands up well to the buttery sauce.

That’s it!

How to Make Easy Shrimp Scampi

This shrimp scampi recipe is the perfect way for kitchen newbs to make a fancy feeling dinner. There’s not a lot that goes into making it, meaning there’s little chance to mess something up.

To make this shrimp scampi, start by cooking your linguine according to the directions on the package.

While the water boils put the shrimp into a small bowl with half the lemon juice, the pressed garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss it together.

Once the water for the pasta boils, add the pasta to the water. Then melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook for about 2 minutes before flipping.

Cook an additional 60 to 90 seconds or until the shrimp is pink on both sides and opaque. Then add the white wine and bring it to a simmer.

Let it simmer for 3 minutes. Add the cooked pasta, then give everything a toss and finish with the remainder of the lemon juice and the lemon zest. And if you’re feeling fancy, sprinkle on some parsley and Parmesan cheese for a finishing touch.

And dinner’s done!

Shrimp Scampi Variations

This shrimp scampi recipe is a great basic shrimp scampi. Sometimes I like to get creative with my seafood pasta. For example, I love to make a Christmas shrimp scampi variation with green asparagus and red bell pepper for a pop of extra festive colors. We also like to turn up the heat with this chipotle shrimp scampi. You could even add crab or some lobster in for a really decadent seafood pasta.

What to Serve With this Pasta

Honestly, I’m one of those people that could eat a pound of pasta and nothing else. But if you feel like your meal should be a little more well rounded I’d make a light salad like this strawberry salad to start and serve it with garlic parmesan Brussels sprouts or roasted asparagus. Yum.

Other Easy Date Night Recipes

Some of my favorite home date night meals are pasta recipes like this shrimp scampi. If you’re looking for some other meals worthy of a special night in try these:

• brown butter lobster pasta
• crab risotto
• shrimp risotto with garlicky kale
• balsamic chicken and tomato pasta

Make this easy shrimp scampi recipe for your next date night at home and see why I love it so much. Did you make this recipe? Leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram @seasonedsprinkles so I can see your creation!

Check out my easy shrimp scampi web story.