Let’s Make Emilia’s Shrimp Scampi!

One of my favorite parts of The Kingdom of the Wicked was the food! It was set in a Sicilian restaurant and Emilia had a passion for cooking. There were several times that she mentioned shrimp scampi. She was trying to perfect her recipe. I’ve never made shrimp scampi before, so I was inspired to give it a try. Let’s get cooking!

So the recipe that I wanted to try was from Cafe Delites. It was a simple recipe, and her pictures drew me in. She’s much better at photographing food, but hey I’m a book blogger. Anyhow, I didn’t have to buy many ingredients.

Ingredients

I could only find frozen shrimp. It’s not my preference but I live in a small town in the hills of northeast Alabama. You take what you can get, lol. I got the easy peel because it was my first time cooking shrimp. I couldn’t be bothered with the extra work.

I already had the rest of the ingredients on hand. Butter and olive oil are essentials in my kitchen. I wanted fresh parsley, but the parsley at the store was sad and wilted. Parsley flakes worked fine. There’s also garlic in the recipe. Like lots of garlic, but that’s perfectly fine by me. I love garlic. If you don’t have garlic in your kitchen you need to stop reading this and go buy some immediately. Unless you’re allergic then maybe you shouldn’t.

Next, the pasta. My husband is a bow tie pasta lover. It is his pasta of preference so that’s what I used. It worked well, but I think I’ll use angel hair next time. I just think it would be great with the sauce. Also, the recipe called for dry white wine. I used champagne because we had it in the fridge. It worked just fine.

The Process

This was literally the easiest pasta sauce I’ve ever made. It all came together in about ten minutes, or possibly even less. It will definitely be a weekday go to.

The first step was to sauté your garlic in butter and olive oil. You don’t want to let it go too long, just about a minute. Your noise will tell you when it’s ready.

Next you add your shrimp and crushed red pepper. When the shrimp just starts to turn pink you add in your wine. Then you let your wine reduce by half.

Please start your pasta before you start your scampi. Don’t make my mistake. The sauce really does come together in no time at all.

When the wine reduces, add your butter, lemon juice, and parsley. Then immediately take it off the heat. Over cooked shrimp are the worst. I added a little extra lemon juice to mine because I’m a citrus fiend. Also, in Kingdom of the Wicked, Emilia ate at a restaurant that added more lemon juice than her family. She really enjoyed the bright flavor it gave. But I will say the original recipe had enough lemon juice for a normal person. But again, I’m obsessed with citrus.

The Finished Product

My husband and I loved this shrimp scampi. I added parmesean cheese to mine, but I really didn’t need it. I preferred it without. The sauce was so light and buttery. I was worried that the frozen shrimp would be too fishy for my taste, but they were really light and sweet. I’m glad that I took inspiration from Emilia to get out of my cooking comfort zone. I also plan to try more recipes from Cafe Delites because this one was delicious!

What’s your favorite shrimp dish?