Shrimp Scampi Pasta

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on Last updated

20 Comments

8 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
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Shrimp Scampi Pasta just like you order at your favorite Italian restaurant with a butter wine sauce with tons of garlic and Parmesan cheese.

Shrimp recipes make such quick, simple Dinners. This dish is especially great because it takes classic Shrimp Scampi and adds pasta to make it more filling, and you can still make it in under 30 minutes.

top down photo of Shrimp Scampi Pasta with peas

SHRIMP SCAMPI PASTA

Shrimp Scampi and Pasta is a surprisingly easy dish that’s sure to impress anyone. The combination of flavorful shrimp, scampi sauce, and pasta seems like they’d take hours to make. You’d never guess the total time is just 30minutes. Once you toss the shrimp in the skillet, you’ll be amazed how quickly your dinner is ready to go!

This is the perfect go-to recipe for when you’re in a hurry, but still want something a little fancier than typical spaghetti. Serving the delicious shrimp with pasta makes it a filling dish on its own. For the ultimate Italian dinner, serve it with buttery Garlic Bread on the side.

The primary flavors of scampi sauce are lemon zest, garlic, butter, and white wine. As long as you have those ingredients, you’re halfway to your delicious shrimp scampi. You don’t even need to worry about getting an expensive white wine for the sauce. As long as you have a crisp, dry wine you’re fine. Pinot Grigio, or something as simple as a Chardonnay would be excellent. There’s no need to spend a lot of money on a white wine if you’re only using it for cooking.

Another great thing about cooking with shrimp is that shrimp goes on sale fairly often. Just wait to make Shrimp Scampi until the next time you’re at the grocery store and see the shrimp is on sale. Buy yourself a few pounds while it’s cheap, and enjoy Shrimp Scampi on a budget.

MORE SHRIMP RECIPES

HOW TO PEEL & DEVEIN SHRIMP:

  1. If they haven’t already been removed, take off the legs and head of the shrimp.
  2. Starting at the tail section, peel away the outer shell from the body of the shrimp.
  3. After you peel the shrimp, use a pairing knife cut along the shrimp’s spine about 1/4″ deep.
  4. Remove and discard the black line that runs along the shrimp’s back.
  5. To remove the tail, pinch the shrimp where the tail and body meet. It should come off with just a little effort.

TIPS FOR MAKING THE PERFECT SHRIMP SCAMPI PASTA

  • Use fresh garlic. Garlic is the most powerful flavor in shrimp scampi, so it’s essential to use fresh for the best flavor.
  • You also want to use fresh lemon juice. The lemon juice in shrimp scampi does a good job brightening up the flavor. Fresh will work much better for this than bottled lemon juice.
  • During your prep time, measure out your ingredients before you start cooking. Once you start sautéing the shrimp, this recipe goes fast. You don’t want to risk burning anything while you measure out the next ingredient. It’s much simpler to have everything measured and ready for when you need them.
  • Don’t skip the marinading time. Allowing the shrimp to marinate in olive oil, red pepper, salt, and garlic for the full hour will give you a much more flavorful dish than if you cut the time short.
  • Don’t overcook the spaghetti, linguine, or whatever pasta you use. You want to keep the pasta al dente for this dish.

Shrimp Scampi Pasta in green pot

VARIATIONS ON SHRIMP SCAMPI PASTA

  • Pasta: Instead of using spaghetti, there are lots of other pastas you can pair with shrimp scampi. Linguine is a classic pasta to use with shrimp recipes. Other than linguine, there’s angel hair pasta, fettuccine, or tagliatelle. Long somewhat thin pasta work best for this recipe. Whichever pasta you choose to use, leave it in the pasta water a few minutes shy of the package instructions. You don’t want to overcook it.
  • Wine substitutes: If you don’t have white wine, there are a few substitutes you can try. The most obvious alternative is using white wine vinegar. It will add a lot of the same flavor wine does. You could also use vegetable or chicken broth in place of the wine. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to the chicken stock to give it some of the bitterness of wine.
  • Add-ins: There are some ingredients you can try adding the next time you make shrimp scampi. Mix in some shallots to the skillet while you sauté the shrimp. You could also top the dish with grape tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes before serving.

MORE EASY ITALIAN RECIPES

HOW TO STORE SHRIMP SCAMPI PASTA

  • Serve: Don’t leave this Shrimp Scampi recipe at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
  • Store: Once the Shrimp Scampi and pasta have cooled to room temperature, put them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They’ll keep well in the fridge for 2 days.
  • Freeze: You can freeze Shrimp Scampi without the pasta. The shrimp will stay good in the freezer for up to 2 months. You’ll just have to make another large pot of pasta before serving the shrimp again.

Shrimp Scampi Pasta with lemon and peas in large green pot

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Dinner, then Dessert

Shrimp Scampi Pasta

Shrimp Scampi Pasta just like you order at your favorite Italian restaurant with an butter wine sauce with tons of garlic and Parmesan cheese.
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course, pasta
Cuisine Italian
Author Sabrina Snyder
square cropped photo of Shrimp Scampi Pasta
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Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 cup olive oil divided
  • 1 pound large shrimp peeled, deveined
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup green peas frozen
  • parsley optional

Instructions

  • Add the garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, ½ of the olive oil and shrimp to a bowl and let marinate for 60 minutes.
  • Cook the pasta one minute shy of the instructions on the box (about 7-8 minutes).
  • Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and the other half of the olive oil. Add the shrimp (reserve the marinade) to the pan, cooking on each side for 1-2 minutes.
  • Remove the shrimp from the pan, add in the wine and lemon juice and cook for 3-4 minutes or until reduced by half before adding in the butter and the peas, cooking and additional 3-4 minutes.
  • Add the shrimp, pasta, marinade and Parmesan cheese to the pan, toss to coat and serve with parsley as a garnish if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 425kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 162mg | Sodium: 838mg | Potassium: 233mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 381IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 177mg | Iron: 2mg

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Shrimp Scampi Pasta collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I am an elderly lady (knocking on the door of 90 yrs), and have been subscribed to your blog for quite awhile. I was 9 yrs old when I started cooking for a family of 7 (mom was in the hospital a lot). I decided to try your recipes for some of my old stans- by’s, but have yet to feel the need to ”tweak” one (other than to omit hot spices). My family of 4 loves your recipes (ages 62 yrs down to 13 yrs).

    Reply

    1. Wow, you are amazing! This made my day. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!

      Reply

  6. What are we reserving the marinade for? Also, you list the olive oil as divided, I am assuming we use part of it to saute the shrimp? You might want to clarify that. Love your site. Love your recipes. Your pot roast is the best ever.

    Reply

    1. So sorry about that! Let me clarify. Half of the olive oil is used in the marinade and the other half is for cooking the shrimp. You’ll be reserving the marinade to toss back into the pasta dish. I’ve edited it to read correctly now. Enjoy!

      Reply

  7. Instructions say to reserve the shrimp marinade but don’t say what to do with it. Do you put it in the pan when you add the wine and butter?

    Sounds like a wonderful recipe and one I will definitely make.

    Reply

  9. Thank you so much for this recipe and for the comments. I’ve had a crap pasta dish at a large Cajon restaurant in Houston that became, along with Mr B’s bbq shrimp, my favorite seafood dish. I’m very anxious to try this on Saturday.
    Can’t wait!

    Reply