How To Make the Best Easy Shrimp Scampi (with Linguine)

There’s a lot to love about this shrimp scampi. A buttery, lemony garlic sauce coats linguine and shrimp, and the bright bite of red pepper and parsley balances everything.

This recipe has just a few steps, and we’ll walk you through when to thaw the shrimp, cook the pasta, and start the sauce. Plus, this recipe includes my favorite trick for giving shrimp a quick marinade. The resulting dish is the epitome of an easy-fancy dinner.

Scampi can refer to large shrimp or prawns, but is most ubiquitously the quick dish of shrimp sautéed in garlic, butter, and white wine. You might see shrimp scampi served over toasted bread, but for the hearty, most satisfying dinner dish, shrimp scampi with linguine (which holds the weight of the shrimp and soaks up the sauce) is the best.

• Dry linguine: Skip spaghetti or angel hair and pick a dry linguine. The thicker, flatter shape is ideal for the sauce.
• Dry white wine: Grab a mid-priced bottle — you’ll only use a cup, so make sure it’s a bottle you can drink with dinner too. Sauvignon blanc is an ideal choice.
• Frozen shrimp: Skip fresh, uncooked shrimp (a lot of it was once frozen, anyway) and stock a pound (20-25 count) of shrimp in your freezer instead. I find that shell-on tastes better, as the shells protect the shrimp during freezing and thawing, but if you buy shell-off you’ll trim about 10 minutes off the prep time. Avoid already cooked (frozen or otherwise) shrimp.

Here’s the plan: Start the pasta water first. In the 10 minutes it takes to come up to boiling, grate and slice the garlic, peel and juice a lemon, and peel the thawed shrimp before you start cooking the pasta.

A tale of two garlics: We’re asking you to cut the garlic two ways in this recipe. Minced garlic releases more of the garlic’s oil, which flavors the shrimp marinade. Sliced garlic is ideal for sautéing in butter because it’s less likely to burn.

A quick marinade for the shrimp builds more flavor into the dish. Toss the raw shrimp with salt, grated garlic, and a little olive oil. The shrimp and marinade will go into the sauté pan to help flavor the sauce, too. The oil also protects the shrimp from overcooking or breaking the scampi sauce.

When you get into a good flow with shrimp scampi, you’ll be removing the sauce from the stove right about the time the pasta is ready to drain. Drain the pasta quickly and immediately add it to the pan with the shrimp and sauce.

Now, use tongs to lift and rotate the pasta until all the strands are coated. The pan will look a bit dry because the pasta will have absorbed most of the sauce. Add a sprinkle of parsley to balance the richness, and now your scampi is ready for serving! This is a dish best enjoyed when everything is hot and saucy right off the heat.