Garlic Butter Scampi Pasta with Parmesan is one of my favorite Italian dishes. It is easy to prepare and will be ready in just 30 minutes from start to finish.
When eating in an Italian restaurant, 9 out of 10 times, I would order scampi pasta. When I do the home-cooking, I want a light and simple version. This Garlic Butter Scampi Pasta with Parmesan is the right choice because it is much less creamy. And the garlic flavoured large shrimps prepared in butter bring a great taste to the pasta.
I offer Garlic Butter Scampi Pasta with Parmesan as the main course to my guests. With a vegetable soup and an Italian dessert such as Mango Tiramisu with Cantuccini, I can create an elegant 3-course Italian dinner menu. One of my seafood wine matches is the German Rieslings.
Main ingredients
The main ingredients are Fusilli, large shrimps, butter, and fresh ground Parmesan.
Fusilli
The corkcrew-shape fusilli has many varieties and also in different colours. I have tried spinach flavoured fusilli, cuttlefish ink coloured fusilli, and whole wheat fusilli. They are all suitable for this recipe.
Shrimp
Large shrimps, or Scampis, are the best choice for this recipe. They have firm texture and don’t lose juice so much during cooking. Compare to the version using small shrimp on the other day, I like this version more. The butter and garlic flavour goes perfect with the large shrimps.
Parmesan
The Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with a granular texture has a sharp taste, fruity taste, and nutty taste. It enriches the flavour of this pasta dish. This is must-have ingredient to this recipe. In fact, Parmesan goes well for most pasta dishes.
Butter
Garlic and butter are used for shrimp cooking. If you prefer to have a strong garlic flavour, the substitute can be the garlic butter.
How to make Garlic Butter Scampi Pasta with Parmesan
It takes four main steps to cook the recipe.
Cook pasta
Cook the pasta in a pot of well-salted water according to the instructions. Don’t overcook pasta. It can become limp and can not hold its shape.
Prepare for the sauce
I use cream, lemon juice, garlic, flour, and salt as sauce ingredients. You can adjust the amount of these ingredients according to your taste. If you prefer to have more extra sauce, add more cream. If you like a liquid sauce, then leave out the flour.
Shrimp cooking
The last step is to cook the shrimp. I always roast the garlic first. Use high heat cooking shrimps so that they get done quickly. Otherwise, the shrimps will shrink because of losing juice.
Serving
When the sauce is ready, first mix it with pasta and Parmesan. Optional, you can leave out Parmesan and sprinkle the cheese on top of pasta when eating. Top the pasta with shrimps.
Tips for the recipe
You can add fresh spinach or arugula as an extra ingredient.
Garlic Scampi Parmesan Pasta
Ingredients
- 300 g Fusilli
- 300 g large shrimp
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tsp salt
- black pepper freshly ground
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 clove garlic minced
- 100 g Parmesan freshly grated
- 150 ml cream
- 2 tsp flour
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- basil leaves
Instructions
- Boil a large, well-salted pot of water (add two teaspoons of salt) for the pasta. Add olive oil in the boiled water and cook al dente as directed. Drain pasta well and leave it in the pot.
- While cooking pasta, season shrimps with one teaspoon salt and black pepper.
- Dry the shrimp well. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Then, saute garlic in the melted butter until fragrant. Add shrimp and cook until pink.
- Meanwhile, add lemon juice, one minced garlic, cream, and one teaspoon salt to a skillet over medium-high heat. Let the sauce bubble for 1 minute. Add the flour to the sauce, whisk to ensure the sauce is smooth.
- Add the sauce and Parmesan to the pot. Mix the sauce, pasta, and Parmesan well.
- When serve, place pasta on the plates, arrange the garlic butter shrimp on top, and garnish with basil leaves.