Gremlin Food Mom: Simple Scampi! So Good!

Shrimp scampi! Super fast, super simple, super delicious! Great summer meal, but Nick had a hankering for scampi, and I was more than happy to oblige!

Now, I can't make a meal without something "green and veggie", so, tonight, it was broccoli, because... broccoli was what we had. To get ready, I wash all my produce before beginning! Especially my lemons (with all their zesty flavor)! I want clean food ('nuff said)! So to prepare the broccoli, I wash and trim and add a little olive oil (about 2 teaspoons), and sprinkle with some salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder. Set oven for 375 and get ready to roast that broccoli for 15-20 minutes. More for the broccoli comes later!

So, for the scampi, I start with the shrimp. We love shrimp, but, HEY, shrimp's expensive, so I buy mine when it's on sale, frozen, raw, and do the work myself.

Thaw the shrimp in cold water. It only takes about 20 minutes. Tonight we used 2 bags (2 pounds) frozen shrimp. When thawed out, I peeled and set aside until ready.

This much shrimp can take one and one half boxes (pounds) of pasta. We like this brand, and cooked al-dente (firm, not mushy, follow directions on box). Make sure to salt your pasta water (at least one tablespoon). This is the only time you can season the pasta... just DO IT!

So here's how this went down, first, I chopped 8 (yup, 8, seriously, it's scampi) cloves of garlic in my handy-dandy chopper. When I have this much garlic, I bust out the chopper. It's a 30 second upper body work out like no other, with a delicious fresh garlicky reward! You can use your knife skills if you don't have a chopper, but, I love my chopper.

While the garlic is sitting and ready, put 2-3 Tablespoons butter and 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a pan. Now while this seems like a lot of... oil and fat... it's the sauce for the whole dish, and actually about half of what most scampi recipes require (with these proportions... more on that later)!

Drop all that garlic in the med-high heat pan and stir for one minute only (you do not want to burn that garlic). Next, drop the shrimp and watch carefully, shrimp cooks fast.

After dropping the shrimp, I add one teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes. We like heat, you may want to add half of that, or even add to taste at the end. This is how we like it.

Cook shrimp until pink and edges curl slightly... about 2-3 minutes per side, depending on the size. Watch and stir and tend to these little babies for this part. It matters.

When pasta is cooked get ready to strain and add add to the shrimp. BUT, BEFORE straining the pasta, scoop out one cup of that starchy, salty pasta water and set aside. It will help us later with the sauce... saucy flavor with zero calories (just the way I like my calories)! Immediately add the cooked pasta to the shrimp, toss with tongs, and get ready to finish!!

Getting ready for the BIG FINISH! Keep that pasta water ready, and chop about half a cup of flat leaf parsley (flavor-town!!). Also, thin slice one of the many lemons we used tonight. We will toss these in the end, and they will finish help add to that lemony-garlicky pasta party!

After dropping the pasta to the shrimp, add the zest of one lemon and the juice of one lemon! Toss in the parsley and lemon slices. Using tongs, mix all that pasta scampi goodness until it's one big happy scampi family! Here's where we may want that pasta water. I do not add as much butter and oil as most scampi recipes, and the best kept secret is to use pasta water instead! If the pasta seems dry and it's not coated in flavor... add some pasta water! Tonight I added about 1/3 of that pasta water... and you'd never know... shrimpy, garlicky deliciousness!! Remember this tip for other pasta recipes!

So, let's finish the broccoli to have with the scampi. The scampi would be fabulous on it's own. Nerd-Mommy-Girl needs to have green veggies (or, veggies, at least) at every meal, so, broccoli it is! After roasting that beautiful broccoli toss it into a bowl.

Using a veggie peeler (how appropriate), shave some pecorino romano cheese and drop a handful of pistachios into the broccoli and toss. Here's where the amounts can vary according to what you like. We wanted to repeat last night's brussel sprout event, so we did it this way. You could add grated parmesean cheese, or toasted pine nuts, whatever you like.