Description
This Italian Shrimp Scampi pasta recipe is made with langoustines (also known as the Norway lobster) and it’s very different from what most of us think of as “shrimp scampi pasta”. It’s definitely worth trying to get your hands on some of these baby lobsters, but you can also substitute head-on prawns or Argentinian Red Shrimp which also taste great. We use the entire scampi (shells, pincers, and all) in this recipe because they’re the secret to getting the most fresh-from-the-sea flavor packed into this dish. Feel free to substitute homemade shrimp stock with storebought to save time a little time.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces of mezze maniche pasta (or rigatoni, linguini, or spaghetti) (170g)
- 10 scampi langoustine (head-on), tail meat detached and deveined (or Argentinian Red shrimp heads-on) (300-500g)
- 1 quart homemade shrimp stock (or storebought), divided (1L) *see notes below
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (55g)
- 3 medium to large garlic cloves, smashed (10g)
- 1 medium or large scallion, finely diced
- 3 sweet grape tomatoes, finely diced (45g)
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Clean the shrimp. Remove the heads and shells from the scampi (or shrimp if using), and devein the tail meat. Add the meat to a small bowl placed over ice (to keep them cold while you prepare the garlic-infused olive oil.
- Infuse the olive oil + cook the scampi heads and shells. Add the olive oil and garlic to a cold cast-iron or another heavy-gauge skillet and increase heat to medium. Sauté the garlic until just perfectly golden brown and fragrant (about 4 to 5 minutes) and add the scampi heads, pincers, and shells and sauté until opaque and cooked through (about 5 to 7 minutes). Using a pair of tongs, squeeze the heads and shells directly over the skillet to release any bits of scampi meat and juices discarding the shells. Repeat until all meat and juice have been extracted. Remove any small scampi whiskers or shells that may be left in the skillet.
- Heat the shrimp stock. Add the shrimp stock to a saucepot, season with salt to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow it to simmer while you sauté the vegetables.
- Sauté the scallions + tomatoes and deglaze the pan with Marsala. Add the diced scallions and tomatoes and sauté over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes and add the Marsala wine (or other white wine if using). Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking while whisking the mixture periodically for about 5 to 8 more minutes, or until it becomes glossy in appearance and slightly reduced.
- Add the shrimp stock. Add about 1/2 cup of hot shrimp stock to the sauce mixture and increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk periodically while continuing to cook for about 8 minutes, or until the mixture has slightly reduced.
- Cook the pasta. Bring the stock to a boil and cook the pasta to al dente doneness according to the package directions.
- Sear the scampi. About 5 minutes into the pasta cooking time, add a couple of ladles full of stock (about 1/4 cup) to the sauce in the skillet and cook over medium heat until slightly reduced (about 5 minutes). Add the scampi tail meat (and any whole scampi you may be using for garnish). and sauté for 1 minute. Add another ladle full of starchy stock directly to the sauce and cook for about 2 minutes more, or until scampi are cooked through and opaque. Turn off the heat. At this point the sauce should be a silky consistency. If you feel it needs to be looser, add a bit more stock and stir. If the sauce seems too “wet” or watery, remove the scampi meat to a small plate, turn the heat up to high and reduce the sauce to the desired consistency. Place the scampi meat back into the sauce before adding the pasta.
- Strain the pasta + assemble the dish. Strain the pasta and immediately add it to the sauce and toss to combine everything well. Feel free to drizzle it with a little more EVOO if desired and serve immediately, and Enjoy!
Notes
- If you plan ahead and make your own shrimp stock for this recipe, you’ll be able to taste it in the finished pasta. That said if you’re too busy or just don’t want to bother with it, go ahead and buy a good seafood stock from your local fishmonger or grocery store (Kitchen Basics is a good brand). Once the stock is ready and the scampi tails have been cleaned and deveined, this is a simple and fairly quick pasta to make.
- How much stock you’ll use will vary slightly. But as a good guideline, here’s precisely what I used in this recipe.
- 1/2 cup of stock will be added directly to the sauce as you begin to build it and another 1/2 cup or so gets added in the middle of cooking to help maintain and build the sauce. While the remaining stock will be used for boiling the pasta so that the noodles can absorb the flavor of the stock as it cooks. And lastly, towards the end of cooking time (as with most all pasta recipes), you’ll add some of the now starchy pasta cooking stock (about 1/2 cup or more) directly into the sauce and whisk to emulsify and slightly reduce it just before straining and adding the noodles. Adding the starchy cooking liquid to the sauce towards the end of cooking time does two important things — it allows the starches to emulsify with the sauce to create a silkier sauce and better mouthfeel and also allows the sauce to better coat the noodles. So, I use about 2 cups of total stock in the sauce itself. You may use more or less depending on the type of pasta you’re using and how thick or thin your desired sauce consistency is.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
