On a particularly warm and sunny day this week, Greg and I and decided to ditch the pasta and opted instead to share a lighter lunch.  We all love shrimp (especially Julia) so we decided to try our luck with Shrimp Scampi.  I have never made this dish before so I did some research and looked at a few different ways it is prepared.  After evaluating the ingredients I had lying around the house, I came up with a simple recipe for my first attempt at this classic dish.  I have to say – we were all pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. 

I was pleased to see Greg fare la scarpetta, or “to do the little shoe”.  This is a term the Italians have come up with that I adore.  When you have a delicious sauce that you can’t stand to leave behind, you can use a piece of bread to mop it up.  I would encourage you to be sure that you have plenty of good bread for you or your guests to do la scarpetta!

INGREDIENTS (serves two)

>Two (2) teaspoons Olive oil
>Juice of half (½) a lemon
>Zest of about one (1) lemon
>Three quarter (¾) cup of white wine
>Three (3) cloves of minced garlic
>Two (2) tablespoons of unsalted butter
>One-two (1-2) tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley
>One (1) pound of shrimp
>Salt

As you can see I used shrimp that was still in the shells.  You can also choose to use peeled shrimp.  I thought we got good flavor from keeping the shells on though.  Either way, make sure your shrimp is clean and dry before putting it in the pan.

>Place olive oil and two (2) tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
>Add the shrimp to the pan and spread them out so they lay flat on the pan bottom.
>While the shrimp is cooking, flavor with salt.
>Cook for one-two (1-2) minutes without moving.  Once that side is cooked, mix in the garlic and flip the shrimp.
>Cook for an additional one-two (1-2) minutes or until fully cooked.  >Remove the cooked shrimp, set aside and keep warm.

>In the same skillet add the wine and lemon juice, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
>Allow the liquid to come to a boil and slightly thicken and salt to taste.
>Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest and parsley.  Return the shrimp to the pan and mix into the sauce.  Serve while hot!

Note:  The next time I make this dish I will try to make additional sauce by increasing everything but the shrimp.  The sauce was so good, we wanted more!