**The Art of Cooking Scampi Sauce: A Step-by-Step Guide**

When it comes to cooking up a classic scampi sauce, there's one ingredient that stands out above the rest: butter and shrimp. The combination may seem simple, but trust us, it's where the magic happens. In this article, we'll dive into the world of scampi sauce and explore the techniques and tips needed to create a truly unforgettable dish.

**Selecting the Perfect Shrimp**

When choosing your shrimp, look for beautiful color and firm texture. You want your shrimp to be plump and vibrant, with no signs of drying out or discoloration. If you're unsure about the freshness of your shrimp, give them a sniff – they should have a mild oceanic scent. Once you've selected your perfect batch of shrimp, it's time to get cooking.

**Cooking the Shrimp**

Heat up a skillet over medium-high heat and add a generous amount of butter (we recommend using high-quality, European-style butter for the best flavor). As the butter melts, carefully add in your shrimp. Cook for about two minutes on each side, or until they turn pink and start to flake apart slightly. Don't overcrowd the skillet – cook in batches if necessary, to ensure that each piece of shrimp has enough room to cook evenly.

**Finishing the Dish**

Once your shrimp are cooked, remove them from the skillet and set aside. Reduce heat to low and add in a mixture of minced shallot and garlic, sautéed until softened and fragrant. Now it's time to bring in the flavor boosters: lemon zest, lemon juice, red pepper flakes (optional), chicken bouillon powder, AP seasoning, chopped parsley, and – the star of the show – capers. Stir well to combine, then add a tablespoon or two of fresh lemon juice to brighten up the flavors.

**The Magic of Emulsification**

To create a truly creamy sauce, it's essential to emulsify the butter and lemon juice mixture. Simply stir in about half a stick of melted butter (yes, you read that right – half a stick!) while constantly stirring the sauce with a spoon or whisk. This will help break down the fat molecules and create a smooth, velvety texture.

**Adding the Pasta**

Now it's time to add your pasta to the sauce. Choose a long, thin shape like spaghetti, linguine, or angel hair – anything that can hold onto the flavors without getting lost in the sauce. Cook the pasta al dente, then toss it with the scampi sauce, adding a splash of pasta water if needed to achieve the perfect consistency.

**Finishing Touches**

Before serving, add the cooked spaghetti to the skillet and stir to coat with the scampi sauce. If you want an extra rich and creamy sauce, add another tablespoon or two of melted butter. Now it's time to plate! Arrange your pasta on a beautiful plate, followed by a few shrimp, some parsley for garnish, and – if you're feeling fancy – a sprinkle of lemon zest.

**The Final Taste Test**

And finally, the moment we've all been waiting for: the taste test. Take a bite of this glorious scampi sauce-drenched pasta, and let out a satisfied sigh. The combination of flavors is nothing short of magic: buttery, garlicky, citrusy, and utterly addictive. This, folks, is what it means to be truly well-cooked.

**Tips and Variations**

For an added kick, sprinkle some red pepper flakes on top of the dish or add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the table. If you're feeling adventurous, try substituting your pasta with linguine or other long, thin shapes – just remember not to overcook!

Whether you're a seasoned chef or a culinary newbie, this scampi sauce recipe is sure to become a staple in your kitchen. With its simple yet elegant technique and unbeatable flavor profile, it's no wonder why scampi has remained one of the world's most beloved dishes for centuries.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday the name of the game is quick easy and inexpensive I'll be showing you how to make one of my absolute favorite week night dishes this is my recipe for shrimp scampy pasta meet me in the kitchen let's make it happen like a wild animal dam that sauce is M the front end the back end First Step my friends to a proper shrimp scampy is to find some good quality shrimp and that's exactly what we have here today these are not peeled in the vein though so we must do the leg work there so what we're going to go go ahead and do is peel them first and then I'll show you how to devain them which is really easy they actually have those little needle deiners you can get on Amazon but for those of you that uh don't want to waste any extra money grab yourself a pairing knife and cut down the back of the shrimp and then here you have the vein you want to remove that because that's the digestive tract and nobody wants to eat that so there it is is gone we'll add it back to the party in there and then we'll go ahead and rinse those off make sure they're nice and clean repeat that stuff for all of your shrimp and then you'll have yourself some peeled Deane and clean shrimp for your shrimp scamping all right guys while our spaghetti pasta is boiling away and cooking in some salty water we're going to go ahead and prep the rest of our ingredients for that we need two shallots a few cloves of garlic going to give a nice fine dice to all of this we're also adding some Capers to the party some lemon shrimp scampy is incredibly flavorful and it's really not a whole lot of ingredients needed for it shrimp can also be found usually on sale for a reasonable price for the most part depending on where you live and overall this is a nice week night option that won't really break the bank and it comes together nice and easy it's also lighter than most you know pastas it's a wine and butter sauce instead of like a heavy alfredo or cream BAS sauce so this is a good way to switch it up keep it a little bit on the lighter side and still enjoy a nice flavorful bowl of pasta all right first up is the shallot I like to leave the root intact cuz it's a little bit easier to prepare going to make slices in One Direction and I'm going to chop in the other direction I like to leave the shallot pieces a little bit larger for this just so I can make sure that I get some in my bite with the pasta so not a fine dice really more of like a rough dice it's a very uniquely shaped shallot here all right nice rough chop rough dice whatever you want to call it want to good get a good half cup or so of Shallot so if you don't have shallow you can use onions whatever you have in the pantry you'll get the job done yellow onion white onion whatever you got even Red Onion would work here always cook your pasta per package instructions and always heavily salt your pasta water we're actually use a little bit of that pasta water cuz it has some starchy uh content to it that's going to help thicken our sauce a little bit along with the butter emulsification there we go shallot prep is done and we're going to move on to the garlic so the easiest way to do this is take the flat end of your blade smash it down a little bit that'll help release it from the skin just peel that skin right on off of the garlic and we'll give that a good dice as well all right guys next up we're going to go ahead and cook our shrimp for that we need 1 to two 2 tbsp of melted butter 1 tbsp of avocado oil for the high smoke point prevent the butter from burning as fast we still get all that flavor because butter and shrimp just work together so we're going in with our shrimp we're looking for some beautiful color on these shrimp we're going to pull them once they get that color and then finish cooking them later once we add everything else but we're going to get the party started with the shrimp because I want to get some of that shrimp flavor in that sauce that way you get the flavor profile from the shrimp it'll kind of add a lot of uh that Seafood element to the to the scampy sauce so that's what we're going for here so get the shrimp in there try not to overcrowd your Skillet too bad couple minutes per side until they start to turn pink beautiful color flip them show The Other Side some love then get them out of there now once you got the shrimp right where you want them we're to go ahead and remove them from the skillet kill the heat so we don't burn up our butter too bad and then my friends we're going in with the shallot and the garlic that we mixed up earlier find your scraper and goes the shallot followed quickly by the garlic then we can turn the heat back on that way we don't Scorch our garlic and shallot it's at this point you want to go ahead and add in your lemon zest I'm using the zest of an entire lemon and some lemon juice we get some more avocado oil in the pan give all this a little time to sauté and soften up smelling good already a touch of red pepper flakes just for a pop of heat totally optional for those of you guys that don't enjoy any spice then we're going in with some chicken buan powder my AP seasoning a little fresh chopped parsley and then one of my favorite ingredients some Capers add a little bit of the juice and a few tablespoons up to a/4 cup of Capers Capers are a little Briney they got the acidity kind of like a lemon great flavor if you've never tried them they're great in a recipe like this if you had chicken picata you probably have had them before it's at this point we're going to go ahead and add in the fresh lemon juice good tablespoon or two of that tons of freshness in this recipe then I'm going to take that pasta water that we preserved add that to the party as well about 1/4 cup and then I'm adding in a good cup of dry white wine going to bring that to a boil let the wine cook off emulsify a little butter add our pasta and our shrimp garnish plate it up once the wine had has had a chance to cook off a little bit we're going to add in about a half stick of butter kill the Heat and just constantly stir it to kind of emulsify that right on into the sauce give it a taste make sure you taste as you go adjust the flavor to your preference and then it's at this point we're going to go ahead and add in our cooked spaghetti use whatever pasta you like Linguini works well here thin spaghetti angel hair really whatever your preference is we're going to go ahead and get that in there to finish cooking in the sauce add the shrimp and then we're going to Plate this up now my friends it's time to Plate this up I like these tongs right here for pasta presentation you get a good twirl on them get some height to your plate for spaghetti you can lay it flat but for this particular recipe I'm going to try to get a little spin like so sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't but all we're looking for is a little bit of height for presentation purposes so give it a twirl I'm going just let it kind of build right off the top there you go you can kind of place your shrimp wherever you prefer and then we'll take a ladle and Spoon this sauce right over the top try to find your prettiest shrimp for the top all right folks now we're going to Plate this up with a little extra sauce the way the good Lord intended this is the part where I say brace yourself for a trademark money shot say it with me guys looking good the only thing left to do is grab my fork and dig in for the taste test but before we do that please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel make sure you hit that Bell to enable notifications as well all right folks we have Capers we got perfectly cooked pasta we've got shallot we've got butter and we got shrimp what more could you ask for try not to make a mess here Moment of Truth and you can eat it's light so you eat about four bowls of these this is crazy that's sauce though it's perfect it's no papers yeah got watch this this video again I got to make this this week this is futoday the name of the game is quick easy and inexpensive I'll be showing you how to make one of my absolute favorite week night dishes this is my recipe for shrimp scampy pasta meet me in the kitchen let's make it happen like a wild animal dam that sauce is M the front end the back end First Step my friends to a proper shrimp scampy is to find some good quality shrimp and that's exactly what we have here today these are not peeled in the vein though so we must do the leg work there so what we're going to go go ahead and do is peel them first and then I'll show you how to devain them which is really easy they actually have those little needle deiners you can get on Amazon but for those of you that uh don't want to waste any extra money grab yourself a pairing knife and cut down the back of the shrimp and then here you have the vein you want to remove that because that's the digestive tract and nobody wants to eat that so there it is is gone we'll add it back to the party in there and then we'll go ahead and rinse those off make sure they're nice and clean repeat that stuff for all of your shrimp and then you'll have yourself some peeled Deane and clean shrimp for your shrimp scamping all right guys while our spaghetti pasta is boiling away and cooking in some salty water we're going to go ahead and prep the rest of our ingredients for that we need two shallots a few cloves of garlic going to give a nice fine dice to all of this we're also adding some Capers to the party some lemon shrimp scampy is incredibly flavorful and it's really not a whole lot of ingredients needed for it shrimp can also be found usually on sale for a reasonable price for the most part depending on where you live and overall this is a nice week night option that won't really break the bank and it comes together nice and easy it's also lighter than most you know pastas it's a wine and butter sauce instead of like a heavy alfredo or cream BAS sauce so this is a good way to switch it up keep it a little bit on the lighter side and still enjoy a nice flavorful bowl of pasta all right first up is the shallot I like to leave the root intact cuz it's a little bit easier to prepare going to make slices in One Direction and I'm going to chop in the other direction I like to leave the shallot pieces a little bit larger for this just so I can make sure that I get some in my bite with the pasta so not a fine dice really more of like a rough dice it's a very uniquely shaped shallot here all right nice rough chop rough dice whatever you want to call it want to good get a good half cup or so of Shallot so if you don't have shallow you can use onions whatever you have in the pantry you'll get the job done yellow onion white onion whatever you got even Red Onion would work here always cook your pasta per package instructions and always heavily salt your pasta water we're actually use a little bit of that pasta water cuz it has some starchy uh content to it that's going to help thicken our sauce a little bit along with the butter emulsification there we go shallot prep is done and we're going to move on to the garlic so the easiest way to do this is take the flat end of your blade smash it down a little bit that'll help release it from the skin just peel that skin right on off of the garlic and we'll give that a good dice as well all right guys next up we're going to go ahead and cook our shrimp for that we need 1 to two 2 tbsp of melted butter 1 tbsp of avocado oil for the high smoke point prevent the butter from burning as fast we still get all that flavor because butter and shrimp just work together so we're going in with our shrimp we're looking for some beautiful color on these shrimp we're going to pull them once they get that color and then finish cooking them later once we add everything else but we're going to get the party started with the shrimp because I want to get some of that shrimp flavor in that sauce that way you get the flavor profile from the shrimp it'll kind of add a lot of uh that Seafood element to the to the scampy sauce so that's what we're going for here so get the shrimp in there try not to overcrowd your Skillet too bad couple minutes per side until they start to turn pink beautiful color flip them show The Other Side some love then get them out of there now once you got the shrimp right where you want them we're to go ahead and remove them from the skillet kill the heat so we don't burn up our butter too bad and then my friends we're going in with the shallot and the garlic that we mixed up earlier find your scraper and goes the shallot followed quickly by the garlic then we can turn the heat back on that way we don't Scorch our garlic and shallot it's at this point you want to go ahead and add in your lemon zest I'm using the zest of an entire lemon and some lemon juice we get some more avocado oil in the pan give all this a little time to sauté and soften up smelling good already a touch of red pepper flakes just for a pop of heat totally optional for those of you guys that don't enjoy any spice then we're going in with some chicken buan powder my AP seasoning a little fresh chopped parsley and then one of my favorite ingredients some Capers add a little bit of the juice and a few tablespoons up to a/4 cup of Capers Capers are a little Briney they got the acidity kind of like a lemon great flavor if you've never tried them they're great in a recipe like this if you had chicken picata you probably have had them before it's at this point we're going to go ahead and add in the fresh lemon juice good tablespoon or two of that tons of freshness in this recipe then I'm going to take that pasta water that we preserved add that to the party as well about 1/4 cup and then I'm adding in a good cup of dry white wine going to bring that to a boil let the wine cook off emulsify a little butter add our pasta and our shrimp garnish plate it up once the wine had has had a chance to cook off a little bit we're going to add in about a half stick of butter kill the Heat and just constantly stir it to kind of emulsify that right on into the sauce give it a taste make sure you taste as you go adjust the flavor to your preference and then it's at this point we're going to go ahead and add in our cooked spaghetti use whatever pasta you like Linguini works well here thin spaghetti angel hair really whatever your preference is we're going to go ahead and get that in there to finish cooking in the sauce add the shrimp and then we're going to Plate this up now my friends it's time to Plate this up I like these tongs right here for pasta presentation you get a good twirl on them get some height to your plate for spaghetti you can lay it flat but for this particular recipe I'm going to try to get a little spin like so sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't but all we're looking for is a little bit of height for presentation purposes so give it a twirl I'm going just let it kind of build right off the top there you go you can kind of place your shrimp wherever you prefer and then we'll take a ladle and Spoon this sauce right over the top try to find your prettiest shrimp for the top all right folks now we're going to Plate this up with a little extra sauce the way the good Lord intended this is the part where I say brace yourself for a trademark money shot say it with me guys looking good the only thing left to do is grab my fork and dig in for the taste test but before we do that please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel make sure you hit that Bell to enable notifications as well all right folks we have Capers we got perfectly cooked pasta we've got shallot we've got butter and we got shrimp what more could you ask for try not to make a mess here Moment of Truth and you can eat it's light so you eat about four bowls of these this is crazy that's sauce though it's perfect it's no papers yeah got watch this this video again I got to make this this week this is fu\n"