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What Is Shrimp Scampi?
This is an Italian dish that consists of shrimp and pasta in a lemon and garlic sauce. Scampi is Italian for a type of small crustaceans called langoustine. Scampi are also referred to as Norway lobsters and Dublin Bay prawns. These crustaceans are very large - even larger than jumbo shrimp - and they are sautéed with butter, olive oil, garlic and sometimes white wine. It seems that a direct translation of the dish is “shrimp shrimp!” (reminds me of chai tea meaning “tea tea” in reference to Masala Chai!). Perhaps it means that in North America, where scampi is not found, you cook the shrimp in a similar method as you cook the scampi!
As you’ll see later on in this post, we’re using colossal shrimp to make this divine pasta dish! If working with large shrimp is intimidating to you, then don’t worry! I’ll tell you exactly how to cook them to perfection! Try out this potentially pesky protein as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge in this ultra delicious and QUICK pasta recipe! This features spaghetti and an aromatic lemon and garlic sauce. I guarantee this Italian favorite looks so fancy but it only takes about 15 minutes to make - most likely you’ll be waiting for your pasta to finish cooking while the shrimp and the sauce are ready!
Be sure to follow along as I prepare our wonderful lemon garlic shrimp in white wine sauce with spaghetti by watching the video! If you have not already, I’d love it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell button so you’re notified when all my video recipes go live! I love to share videos with the written recipes so you get a tangible view of all the steps so you’re guaranteed success! Let’s get cooking!
Why You’ll Love This Garlic White Wine Shrimp Pasta Recipe!
- Quick recipe: This is honestly one of the quickest pasta dishes to make! It looks so fancy and special that you wouldn’t think it’s so speedy, but when I made it multiple times it just blew me away! If you’re hosting a special occasion and need a fantastic meal in a flash, then this is the recipe for you! Additionally, this is also perfect to treat your family for a weeknight meal after a long day at work!
- Few ingredients: You won’t need much here, as I’ll outline further down in this post! You most likely have most of the basics on hand - you may just need to go out of your way to get great shrimp!
- Minimal dishes: In addition to few ingredients, you also won’t require many pieces of equipment for this dish! The less dishes the better, so the cleanup and prep time (or lack thereof!) totally adds up!
- DELICIOUS: This is of course the most important reason! It’s so so good! If you choose to use huge shrimp, they are so tender and flavorful! The lemon garlic sauce really seeps into those shrimp and the pasta and it will blow you and your loved ones away!
What’s the best shrimp?▼
I’m using colossal shrimp here. They range from 15 or less shrimp per pound. You may see them labeled as U15, where the U means “under” or “less than.” Colossal shrimp are one of the largest shrimp you can find out there, with there being super colossal shrimp having 12 or less shrimp per pound!
Colossal shrimp are excellent to use when it comes to grilling shrimp skewers or making cocktails. I really liked them in this pasta because they really stand out! Some recipes use smaller shrimp to scatter them across the pasta. That’s fine and feel free to use smaller shrimp if you’d like and/or that’s what you have on hand already (I’m a big proponent of using what you already have in your kitchen, as I discuss in my Make Cooking Fun!! free guide!). However, as mentioned earlier in this post, scampi are quite large crustaceans, so if you want to make this dish as authentic as possible, I recommend the larger shrimp! Furthermore, they are just so juicy and tender, really bursting with the flavor that will come from your lemon garlic sauce!
When shopping for shrimp, keep in mind how many shrimp you want per person to help you gauge which size to choose. If you are using colossal shrimp, you will use 3 shrimp per person. In my experience, the bag of colossal shrimp had 9 shrimp, so I had enough shrimp to make this dish once for two and another time for myself!
If you can, I would recommend you get fresh shrimp of course. Unfortunately, most of us do not have that luxury, and frozen shrimp are typically more budget-friendly. I used frozen shrimp here and I thawed them under cold water before peeling. You can get peeled shrimp if you want to save some time, but I’m not sure if colossal shrimp is sold already peeled.
What pasta should I use?▼
I used simple spaghetti here. Fun fact: This was actually gluten-free corn spaghetti! I notice that it can get stickier than regular durum wheat semolina spaghetti, so if you do want to make this gluten-free and you’re using corn pasta for the first time, be mindful that you will have to stir it occasionally so your noodles don’t stick!
That being said, any long pasta shape will work. I recommend linguine, fettuccine, angel’s hair pasta, spaghettini or even cappellini!
What Wine Should I use?▼
A white wine that you would actually want to drink is going to be excellent in our dish. I’ve learned first hand that you want to avoid the cheaper wines labeled “cooking wine” that are sold at the grocery stores. It’s worth the investment because the quality of your dish will be at its best! That being said, you don’t have to break the bank to get a solid white wine for cooking. From my restaurant experience, you best believe they do not pay for $40 bottles!
Whenever I’m using wine for cooking, I tend to go for a Sauvignon Blanc. It’s quite budget friendly and it’s super versatile! I use it in my Bolognese Sauce, Indian-Style Bolognese, Spicy One-Pot Chicken & Rice, and Homemade Chicken Gravy! Here are some other wines that work well:
- Pinot Grigio
- Chardonnay
- Marsala
- Dry Sherry
- Dry Vermouth
Wine goes so well with pasta, so with whatever you choose, use it in your dish and enjoy a glass at meal time!
How to substitute wine?▼
Simply use any kind of broth you have on hand. You can use vegetable broth, chicken broth, or seafood broth if you want an even more potent seafood flavor going on in the pasta!
How do I thicken the Scampi sauce?▼
The sauce should thicken on its own as it starts to cool down slightly and combines with the starchy pasta water and molten parmesan. You can always add more parmesan to thicken the sauce or add less pasta water to start with. Simmering the pasta and shrimp for too long might result in them being overcooked.
I think the best part of this dish is that thin(ish) creamy sauce.
Tips for Amazing Lemon Shrimp Scampi
- Make sure to check your shrimp's spine for the vein and remove it promptly, even if you get peeled shrimp. There might be parts of it still lurking and then rinse the shrimp.
- The cook time of the shrimp would need to be adjusted based on the size of the shrimp you are using. Look for the level of curl or springiness in your shrimp to judge its doneness. Your shrimp should not feel too firm and once ready, the inside should still be moist.
- The sauce for the scampi is usually thinner than other sauces. You can always adjust this to your preference by thinning it out with more pasta water as needed or by adding extra parmesan to thicken it. Simmering the pasta for too long will result in both the pasta and shrimp becoming overcooked.
Tools Needed
Ingredients
Check out the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card at the bottom of this post or click the “Jump to Recipe” button to see all ingredient quantities, the recipe instructions and to save the recipe for later. You can also scale the recipe based on how much you want to make.
- Colossal shrimp: Or jumbo as a close second.
- Spaghetti: Or any long pasta shape.
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Lemon: We’ll want the juice of one lemon.
- White wine: Or broth of choice.
- Garlic: Minced garlic will be added to the sauce for great flavor!
- Chili flakes: To taste. You can omit them if you don’t want any added heat to the lemon garlic sauce.
- Parmesan cheese: Please get a block and grate it yourself for best results!
- Parsley: Freshly chopped parsley mixed into the pasta.
- Salt and pepper: To taste.
How to Make Easy Shrimp Scampi
Bring a pot of water up to a rolling boil for your pasta and once boiling, season the water with salt. Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente.
While the water is coming up to boil, peel the shrimp and leave a bit of its shell at the tail end. Check the shrimps to ensure they are deveined.
Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter on a pan on medium heat and once hot add the chopped garlic and chili flakes. Saute until the garlic is fragrant and the chili flakes are lightly roasted.
Then add in the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Stir well to coat the shrimp with the sauteed chilies and garlic and once the shrimp is about 80% of the way done, deglaze the pan with white wine.
Add the juice from 1 lemon as well. Simmer for 1-2 minutes as you lower the heat to medium-low.
Then add in the cooked spaghetti and stir well. If you find the sauce has simmered too much, add a splash of water. Add the rest of the butter and olive oil and mix well to combine.
Season with more salt and pepper as needed.
Add the chopped parsley. Turn off the heat and then add the finely grated parmesan cheese.
Mix well and add more as needed. The parmesan will combine with the sauce to thicken it.
Mix well and then serve right away!
Serving Suggestions
The only greens we have on this plate come from the parsley. If you want some more greens to add to your meal, I recommend my Chicken Caesar Salad as a side dish! The dressing here will be a light Homemade Greek Yogurt Caesar Dressing so it won’t make the meal too heavy.
However, some garlic bread, crusty bread like a baguette, or dinner rolls will pair very nicely! You’ll probably have some leftover lemon garlic sauce, so use that bread to scoop it all up!
Other Tasty Shrimp Recipes!
- Spicy Mexican-Style Wrap with Bacon, Shrimp & Guacamole
- Shrimp & Bacon Fettuccine Alfredo
- Cajun Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Crispy Shrimp & Chicken Tacos
- Grilled Tandoori Shrimp Skewers
- Indian-Inspired Shrimp Orzo Curry
- Teriyaki Shrimp Stir Fry
- Creamy Spinach Pesto with Pan-Seared Shrimp
Choosing the White Wine
A quarter cup of wine is not much, but in a sauce this short it is a quarter of everything you taste, so it is worth a moment's thought. The rule in the FAQ is the right one — use a wine you would actually drink — and beyond that what you want is dry, crisp and unoaked.
- Sauvignon Blanc is what I use, and its grassy, citrus edge sits naturally alongside the lemon. Pinot Grigio is the other easy pick: lighter and more neutral, so it lets the garlic do more of the talking. A dry unoaked Chardonnay or a Vermentino will both work. Dry vermouth is the one to remember if you do not want to open a bottle for a quarter cup — it keeps for months in the fridge and behaves almost identically here.
- What to avoid: heavily oaked Chardonnay, which turns buttery and vanilla-heavy against the lemon, and anything off-dry or sweet like Moscato or a sweeter Riesling. Cooking wine from the vinegar aisle is salted and should be skipped entirely.
- On timing: the wine goes in as a deglaze when the shrimp are about 80 percent done, then simmers one to two minutes. That short simmer is doing two jobs at once — lifting the browned garlic and shrimp fond off the bottom of the pan, which is where a lot of the flavor is hiding, and cooking off the raw alcohol edge. Do not add the wine and immediately move on; give it those two minutes.
If you would rather cook without alcohol, broth is the swap covered in the FAQ. One adjustment worth making: broth brings none of the acidity wine does, so add an extra squeeze of lemon at the end and taste before you serve.
The Sauce: Reserve the Pasta Water, and Finish Off the Heat
Two small moves separate a scampi sauce that clings from one that sits in a puddle at the bottom of the bowl, and both happen in the last two minutes.
- The first is pasta water. The tips section says to thin the sauce with pasta water as needed, which is right — but the pasta gets drained several steps before you need it, so scoop out a mug of the cooking water before it goes down the sink. That water is full of dissolved starch from the spaghetti, and starch is what lets oil, butter and wine hold together as a sauce instead of separating. Plain tap water thins the sauce; pasta water thickens and binds it. Add it a splash at a time, because you can always add more.
- The second is the Parmesan. The recipe has you turn off the heat before the cheese goes in, and that order matters. Parmesan added to a pan still on the burner will tighten and string rather than melt into the sauce, and once it has done that you cannot whisk it back. Off the heat, with the residual warmth of the pan and the pasta doing the work, it melts smoothly and thickens everything as it goes. Grate it finely and from a block — pre-grated cheese is coated with anti-caking starch that goes gritty here.
And a note if you are swapping the pasta. Any long shape works, but if you are using zucchini noodles instead, skip the pasta water entirely: zucchini releases a surprising amount of its own liquid on a hot pan and will thin the sauce for you whether you want it to or not. Cook them for barely a minute, and expect a looser sauce than the spaghetti version.
Substitutions and Variations for the Best Shrimp Scampi
The recipe card lists ten ingredients and serves two, and almost every one of them has a substitute on the card itself. These are the swaps worth knowing about before you start.
The shrimp. Six colossal shrimp is what this easy shrimp scampi recipe is built around, and jumbo sea scallops are the substitution listed on the card - similar size, similar cook time, so nothing else about the method changes. Langoustines are the crustaceans the word scampi actually refers to, and if you can find them they are the most literal version of the dish, though they are rare outside Europe. Whatever you use, the rule for cooking shrimp stays the same: deglaze at about 80 percent done and let the residual heat finish them.
The heat. Chili flakes are what the card calls for, and red pepper flakes are the same thing under the name most American jars use, so either will do. Cayenne pepper is the listed substitute - it is finer and hotter, so start with a quarter teaspoon rather than a shake and taste before adding more.
The butter and oil. The recipe uses 1 1/2 tablespoons each of butter and olive oil, split across two stages. Unsalted butter is what I would reach for, purely because the salted pasta water, the Parmesan and the seasoning are all bringing salt already; unsalted butter melts into the sauce in exactly the same way. Use a large pan rather than a crowded one, because the shrimp need room to saute rather than steam.
The wine. A quarter cup of Sauvignon blanc is the default, and dry vermouth and chicken broth are both listed on the card as substitutes. Whichever you pour in, the white wine sauce still needs those one to two minutes of simmering to lose its raw edge.
The acid. One lemon, juiced. Lime and white wine vinegar are the swaps on the card. Lemon zest is not part of the recipe as written, but a little grated over the finished bowl is the one addition I would make for the best flavor, because the zest carries the citrus aroma that the juice loses to the heat of the pan.
The cheese and herbs. One cup of Parmesan, with Pecorino Romano as the listed substitute - sharper and saltier, so pull back on the added salt if you use it. A quarter cup of chopped flat leaf parsley goes in at the end, and curly parsley is the card's own swap. Fresh parsley matters more here than which kind you use. Basil is not part of this recipe, but a few torn leaves stirred in alongside the parsley push the garlicky sauce in a lighter, more summery direction.
The base. Six ounces of spaghetti is the default, and any long shape works. For a lower-carb bowl, zucchini noodles and cauliflower rice both do the job. Neither is part of the recipe as written, and both need the pasta-water advice above reversed - they release liquid into the pan rather than absorbing it, so the sauce will thin on its own.
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!
Recipe by Anadi Misra
Garlic shrimp scampi tossed in a buttery white wine lemon sauce over pasta — ready in just 30 minutes. A classic Italian seafood dinner that tastes like a restaurant meal made at home.
Stovetop
Rate this recipe ✦
15 min
Prep
15 min
Cook
30 min
Total
2
servings
medium
Level
Ingredients
Ingredients
Tap any quantity to scale
Instructions
- 1
Bring a pot of water up to a rolling boil for your pasta and once boiling, season the water with salt. Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente.
Bring a pot of water up to a rolling boil for your pasta and once boiling, season the water with salt. Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente.
- 2
While the water is coming up to boil, peel the shrimp and leave a bit of its shell at the tail end. Check the shrimps to ensure they are deveined.
While the water is coming up to boil, peel the shrimp and leave a bit of its shell at the tail end. Check the shrimps to ensure they are deveined.
- 3
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp butter on a pan on medium heat and once hot add the chopped garlic and chili flakes. Saute until the garlic is fragrant and the chili flakes are lightly toasted.
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp butter on a pan on medium heat and once hot add the chopped garlic and chili flakes. Saute until the garlic is fragrant and the chili flakes are lightly toasted.
- 4
Then add in the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Stir well to coat the shrimp with the sautéed chiles and garlic and once the shrimp is about 80% of the way done, deglaze the pan with white wine. Add the juice from 1 lemon as well.
Then add in the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Stir well to coat the shrimp with the sautéed chiles and garlic and once the shrimp is about 80% of the way done, deglaze the pan with white wine. Add the juice from 1 lemon as well.
- 5
Simmer for 1-2 minutes as you lower the heat to medium-low. Then add in the cooked spaghetti and stir well. If you find the sauce has simmered too much, add a splash of water. Add the rest of the butter and olive oil and mix well to combine.
Simmer for 1-2 minutes as you lower the heat to medium-low. Then add in the cooked spaghetti and stir well. If you find the sauce has simmered too much, add a splash of water. Add the rest of the butter and olive oil and mix well to combine.
- 6
Season with more salt and pepper as needed and then add the chopped parsley. Turn off the heat and then add the finely grated parmesan cheese. Mix well and add more as needed. The parmesan will combine with the sauce to thicken it. Serve right away!
Season with more salt and pepper as needed and then add the chopped parsley. Turn off the heat and then add the finely grated parmesan cheese. Mix well and add more as needed. The parmesan will combine with the sauce to thicken it. Serve right away!
Nutrition per serving
710
Calories
30g
Protein
76g
Carbs
30g
Fat
4g
Fiber
4g
Sugar
676mg
Sodium
Did you make this recipe? Tag @cooking.with.anadi on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingwithanadi
Tested & written in Anadi’s kitchen
Recipe history
- April 16, 2026 — Reworked and refreshed for the 2026 relaunch — new photography, restructured and standardized ingredients & instructions.
Filed under
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