Anne BralyShrimp scampi first appeared on menus back in the 1960s and by the 1970s was a standard on many. I well remember having it for the first time as a teenager at The Gazebo, a popular restaurant on Georgia Avenue that is now a hair salon.
I don't see it too often anymore on menus, though. Sometimes it's offered as a special, and whenever I eat at Olive Garden - once a year or so - I see it in some form or fashion.
Scampi is a dish open to the whims of the cook. Some add tomatoes, different fresh herbs or finish it with a sprinkle of bread crumbs. But traditional shrimp scampi is made with nothing more than garlic, butter and white wine, then served over angel-hair pasta - and it seems to have disappeared from restaurant menus, for the most part.
According to Lidia Bastianich in her cookbook "Lidia's Italian American Kitchen," shrimp scampi is a dish with Italian roots that immigrants brought to our shores and reinvented, using shrimp rather than scampi, which are tiny lobster-like crustaceans used in Italy.
One thing that's a must when eating shrimp scampi is an overabundance of the buttery rich sauce. I want my shrimp swimming in the stuff - enough so that it soaks the pasta with enough running over into the plate to sop up a basketful of crusty bread. That, to me, is the perfect scampi. Forget diets.
But I've never made it myself and I don't know why. It's such a simple, delicious combination of just a few ingredients. So recently, when I had a taste for scampi, I did just that - gathered my ingredients and made it myself.
I started with a pound of raw, unshelled, large shrimp, a stick of unsalted butter, some olive oil, a full bottle of white wine, a tablespoon of chopped garlic and some chopped parsley and chives from my garden. Then I started building, melting the butter with the olive oil and sautéing the garlic and chives, releasing that wonderful, heady scent as they hit the pan. Next, I tossed in some red pepper flakes to add a little kick to the dish, then added splashes of the wine, a little at a time, tasting as I went.
Next came the shrimp. This is the part you don't want to overdo because overcooked shrimp ruins the entire dish. You want to stop cooking them just when they start to turn pink all over. If they curl up like a roly poly, they've gone too far.
You might question leaving the shrimp in the shells, but you'll find they add a lot of taste. It may not be the most elegant way to serve this dish, but put propriety to the side in favor of flavor.
Shrimp Scampi
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2-3/4 cup dry white wine
1/8-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 pounds large shrimp
1/3 cup chopped parsley
Juice of half a lemon
Cooked angel-hair pasta
In a large skillet, melt butter with olive oil. Add garlic, and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add wine and red pepper flakes; bring to a simmer. Let wine reduce by half, about 2 minutes. Add shrimp in the shells, and sauté until they just turn pink, 2 to 4 minutes, depending upon their size. Stir in the parsley, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve over pasta, accompanied by crusty bread, if desired. Remove shells from shrimp, if desired, before serving, or let people do it themselves, but provide a small bowl at each place setting for spent shells.
Note: Use a little more butter and wine to create more sauce if you want it for the bread.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.