I need you to teach me to make this.
A friend of mine prior to a date.
I’ve cooked quite a few dishes. Most of them have turned out alright, a few have turned out really great, one of them went straight into the trash (look, raw salmon is just not my thing. Go ahead, fight me about it.) and one or two of been just… wow. This is one of those dishes. This is it’s story. This, is the Shrimp Scampi Of All Time.
Spoiler: I stole this recipe
Ok so not entirely accurate, but slightly accurate. To be perfectly honest, this is mostly Babish’s recipe that I’ve modified a few ways. I think I’ve modified it enough to call it my own, but just to be safe, I’m linking Babish’s recipe down below. (If you haven’t checked him out yet, which would just be… shocking… go ahead and do so. He’s so much more talented than me or most other cooks on the internet, and has been a massive inspiration and source of knowledge for me. He’s also got one of the best beards on the internet.)
I’m Modding This Like I’m Playing Minecraft in 2012
So, now that I’ve (hopefully) removed the possibility of Babish annihilating me with an ICBM out of the way, let’s get into the mods I’ve made to his original recipe and why I made them,
Mod One: Bacon (and the associated grease)
Bacon is magic. It goes with/on/in everything. I could spend all day talking about how great bacon is. Anyway, the way I make this recipe incorporates bacon first, starting by frying a few slices up to be nice and crispy and saving the grease in the pan. For those of you who don’t know, bacon grease is rendered pork fat, which is pretty much lard except that it’s rendered from meat that’s been cured and or smoked, and this brings with it that good good flavor. Lard is neutral in flavor, comparatively. Theoretically, you could use lard in place of bacon grease, but it’d be pointless for two reasons. One, you still would need to make bacon. Two, you wouldn’t get the extra bacon flavor.
Mod Two: Broccoli
That’s right, I’m adding in vegetables. I’ve found simply adding broccoli helps make this meal more complete. You don’t have to, but veggies are good for you and broccoli is great and why in the world wouldn’t you like broccoli, you animal. There are two ways you can add broccoli: steamed or baked. Since steamed broccoli is more moist, I’ve found it to mix in better with the dish, but I’ve baked the broccoli before and it’s still turned out alright.
Mod Three: Garlic. More of It. ALL OF IT.
More garlic literally never hurt anyone. Garlic is good for you, is delicious, and helps prevent vampire attacks. I’ve nearly doubled the amount of garlic in this recipe. If it’s not for you, I get it, I forgive you, but seriously, dude, what do you have against garlic?
Mod Four: Noodles?
Traditionally, shrimp scampi is made with spaghetti or linguini noodles. I prefer linguini noodles, since they’re thicker and a little chewier, but you’re welcome to use whatever you want. I’ve used penne noodles before and found them to work quite well.
That concludes the more notable changes I’ve made to the recipe. There are a few other changes and slight tweaks I’ve made, but not notable enough for an entire paragraph.
GATHER YOUR TROOPS- Uh, I mean ingredients
- 4 + 1 Tablespoons unsalted Kerrygold Irish butter (You’ll use one for the panko)
- 5 Cloves of garlic, minced (Mince them yourself, dingus. I won’t have any reader of mine buying pRe-MinCEd gaRlIc)
- 1/4 Teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 Cup of a Sauvignon blanc white wine (You can use others, but make sure they aren’t too sweet. Don’t skimp on your wine.)
- 1/2 Pound of pasta, either linguine or penne
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons of fresh-chopped parsley
- 2 Teaspoons of kosher salt
- 1 Teaspoon of black pepper
- The juice of one lemon (not the combustible kind)
- 1 pound peeled shrimp
- 4 slices of thick-cut bacon
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano, grated (or until you say stop. It’s okay to like cheese.)
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
ALRIGHT NOW LET’S DO THIS, LEE ROOOOO-
Prepare your mind. Your soul. Your heart. You better be Jesse, ’cause we need to cook.
- Get your pasta cooking. Remember to salt your water! You’re going to want to pull the pasta right before it’s done, since it’ll spend more time in the heat once we mix everything else in. Save some of the pasta water!
A watched pot never boils, and watched pasta never does anything more interesting. Let’s cook some bacon!
- Start by taking a high-walled saute pan and heating it to medium-ish. Whatever you like to cook your bacon at.
- Put a solid glug of olive oil into the pan. Let it rise to temp.
- Put your bacon in the pan. Cook your bacon to desired crispiness.
While the bacon is cooking…
- Chop your head of broccoli into small portions. You want these small enough to mix in with the pasta and not be huge. So like, quarter-bite sized. Yeah. That’s good.
- Start steaming your broccoli. You’ll want it ready so you can mix it in with everything else.
- Mince your garlic. Set aside.
Hey look the bacon’s done!
- Great news. Remove the bacon and chop the strips into quarter inch bits. Set aside.
- Dial your burner down to just under medium. You should have a nice layer of bacon grease in there. Excellent.
- Add in another glug of oil if necessary.
- Toss in your butter. Swirl it until it’s melted.
- Add in your garlic and red chili flakes. Saute for 30 seconds or until the garlic starts smelling good.
- Add in the wine. Simmer until it’s reduced by half.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Toss in your shrimp. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook both sides, about 30 seconds each. .
- Squeeze in those lemons while the shrimp is cooking and don’t burn down any houses while you’re at it.
Finish him!
- Add in your strained pasta to your pan.
- Add in the broccoli.
- Grate the desired amount of cheese on top of the noodles.
- Throw on your chopped parsley and stir.
- Add your pasta water as necessary. This is to help your sauce get to the right consistency, you want to be able to drag a spoon across the pan and it not to be too watery that it fills the gap. If that makes sense. If it doesn’t, watch Babish’s video.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: Breadcrumbs
- Bring a small pan to medium heat. Add your extra tablespoon of butter.
- Toss in your breadcrumbs. Toast them until they’re golden brown. Add to your pan of scampi and stir.
Fun fact about seafood
I don’t usually buy fresh seafood. Why? I’ll explain.
Most of the time, when seafood is “fresh,” that means it’s never been frozen. I live in the city of Richmond, in Virginia, and very little of the seafood at the stores I shop at is sourced locally. Alternatively, frozen seafood is generally frozen the same day it’s caught. Sadly, when you freeze food, it takes away a bit of the flavor and texture. The takeaway here? Frozen seafood has been preserved longer than most fresh, refrigerated seafood. Now, this is highly dependent on where you live. Have a beach house on the shores of Maine? Yeah, buy your seafood fresh, you fop. Live in, idk, Wisconsin? MAYBE buy your seafood frozen, it’ll probably be better and safer.
Other takeaways, dangers, and musings
This is one of my most-cooked recipes. I cannot eat enough of this stuff. With that in mind, I have learned a few things. First, use an aluminum saute pan if you have one. As much as I love cast iron, they’re a bit harder to manage heat with. I’ve burned the garlic or bacon making this recipe, and once you do that it’s hard to salvage. Additionally, this works with just about any type of shrimp. I like medium sized shrimp since they’re small enough to divide between portions, but whatever you prefer works.
Alexander Garver