Saturday, December 13, 2008

Shrimp Scampi over Spaghetti Squash

Garlic. Lemon. Butter. Shrimp. Delicious.



This is one of our favorite "Date Night" dishes. I make this when I want something special and to get us out of our chicken rut. One thing I do to make it different from most shrimp scampi dishes is to use spaghetti squash in place of regular pasta. My family actually likes it over the spaghetti squash better. It provides a nice contrast to the shrimp but still holds the sauce.

My favorite recipe for this comes from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined if desired
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 medium cloves garlic , minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
cayenne pepper
Table salt and ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat 12-inch skillet over high heat until hot, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon oil and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Add 1 pound shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until just opaque, about 1 minute; transfer to medium bowl. Return pan to heat and repeat process with remaining oil and shrimp.

Return empty skillet to medium-low heat; melt 1 tablespoon butter. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Off heat, add lemon juice and vermouth. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons butter; add parsley and cayenne, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Return shrimp and accumulated juices to skillet. Toss to combine; serve immediately.

For the spaghetti squash:

Cut it in half and remove the seeds. Put in a glass dish cut side down with about 2 inches of water in the bottom. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in the microwave. Depending on your microwave and the size of your squash, the time will vary. It takes generally about 20-30 minutes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw your post in recipe muncher and thought it would look great in our feast roundup!

Esi said...

I saw this on recipe muncher too. This is such a good idea. I like how you use spaghetti squash as the pasta.