Drunken Shrimp Scampi

I love shrimp scampi, but every recipe I find online does not yield enough additional sauce to pour over the linguine and the dish winds up kind of dry. Linguine (like any pasta, for that matter) soaks up a lot of liquid in any dish that it’s in. I don’t know about anyone else, but the sauce is actually my favorite part of any dish. Because of this, after about a year of experimenting, I finally have created a recipe that suits my liking both for additional sauce and taste.

Ingredients 

• 2 pound bag frozen uncooked shrimp (for your convenience, buy it cleaned and deveined)
• 1 pound linguine
• 2 c. dry white wine (*Tip about cooking with wine: don’t cook with wine that you wouldn’t drink. I am not suggesting that you should use a $50 bottle to cook with, but a cheap drinking wine is better than an average cooking wine any day.)
• 1 c. water
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 3 shallots, minced
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 stick (1/2 c.) butter (I never said this recipe was healthy!)
• 1/4 c. fresh parsley

Directions

First, defrost your shrimp. I either place the shrimp in a colander or big glass bowl and run cold water over them until defrosted. While they are defrosting, fill a pasta pot with water and set it to boil. Be sure your water is well salted.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil on medium and stir in the minced shallots and garlic. Let them cook for a little, until very aromatic. Do not let the garlic burn. Burned garlic develops a very bitter taste and will ruin the whole dish.

Once very aromatic, pour in the white wine and simmer. Add half the stick (4 tbs) of butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and dijon mustard. Let this all simmer together until the liquid becomes rather thick.

At this point, if your water is boiling, add the linguine. Take the defrosted shrimp and place into the skillet in the juice. Take one cup of water and place in the skillet. If I defrosted the shrimp in a glass bowl, I’ll use a cup of that water. It already has the shrimp flavor.

Once the shrimp is in the skillet, cook on medium and stir and flip the shrimp constantly. Add the rest of the butter. When the shrimp is almost done cooking, put about half of the fresh parsley in the skillet and stir in.

Once your linguine is done cooking, strain and pour into a bowl. Once the shrimp is finished cooking, pour everything from the skillet over the pasta. Once everything is in the bowl, garnish the dish with the rest of the parley and some lemon slices or wedges.

Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!