A quick recipe for everyday with TONS of flavor
All the buttery, garlicky and lemony flavor with a sprinkling of fresh herbs in a lighter sauce you can make in minutes!
We all have a need to simplify – especially at dinnertime.
This is a simple and quick recipe perfect for a weeknight meal. A quick recipe for everyday with TONS of flavor!
Most of us are familiar with the delicious and zesty “Scampi Sauce” ~ comprised of lemon, parsley and garlic butter.
What’s different about this recipe?
The sauce has been “lightened-up” ~ which means ALL OF THE FLAVOR with less calories and fat; which means less butter.
How did I accomplish this?
The quick answer is I have added a cornstarch slurry (equal amounts cornstarch and water) to the sauce to thicken – then swirled in a moderate amount, not too much of butter in the last step. This recipe contains a good amount of broth.
Ok – Let’s break the method down:
Shrimp (I used wild caught) is sprinkled with pepper, sautéed in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil and butter until nicely browned and almost cooked through. They are now removed from the pan, sprinkled with a pinch of salt.
Lots of thin sliced garlic and shallots and a small amount of minced jalapeño are added to the pan and cooked one minute.
White wine, broth (chicken or vegetable) and fresh lemon juice (do not think of using that bottles stuff!) are added to the pan and brought to a boil. then simmered a few minutes.
The cornstarch slurry – just 1 /1/2 teaspoons is added and combined with a wire whisk – will thicken immediately!
Lastly; 3 tablespoons of cold butter is swirled in until the sauce is emulsified. The sauce comes off the heat now… if cooked longer, the sauce will “break.”
Lots of chopped fresh herbs are added to the hot sauce. I’m loving fresh thyme, fresh parsley, fresh oregano and thinly sliced scallions. In summer they are growing in my garden.
The shrimp is added to the sauce and combined to heat them through.
Enough sauce… (I love lots of sauce!) to toss with pasta or zucchini noodles!
DID YOU KNOW? Shrimp Scampi…even the name sounds Italian. Well, it is Italian, but Scampi is actually the name of a European crustacean closely resembling a lobster.
Who knew ~ it’s not classically a shrimp! Originally, the dish referred to the Scampi cooked in its own juices which graduated to being prepared in garlic and olive oil. From there however, you have to hop back over to the United States when Italian immigrants adapted the dish as we know it today. Instead of Scampi, they used shrimp and created variations on the sauce with the base remaining very close to its original form.
Here 10/12 size
ALSO see these Weeknight Recipes!
Enjoy!
Karen