Baked Shrimp Scampi Pasta
Fast dinners can get pretty boring–but you can jazz things up with plenty of fresh garlic, herbs and lemon in this baked shrimp scampi pasta. It’s an indulgence for sure, but save it for a special night in or dinner for friends and you’ll be really proud of the final result.
While you won’t find one of those Paula Deen hamburger-between-two-donuts and topped with a fried egg nightmares here, it’s safe to say not every recipe I make is figure friendly. We farm for heaven’s sake. We bale hay. We sweat. We work. We burn it off. (Okay most of it). So if you want ideas for a lighter version of this baked shrimp scampi pasta, email me or comment and ask about substitutions–we can think up something I’m sure.
Baked Shrimp Scampi Pasta has been a steady in this house for years. I don’t make it much but we love it. My husband doesn’t like his with too much oil or butter, so believe it or not the recipe here has had the butter cut back some. Personally I like mine dripping in it, but you do it however you like it.
If you want to add roasted veggies go for it and a little white wine is dandy too. Don’t have any? Add lemon like I did and the brightness goes a long way to cutting through all that extra butter I like.
You can thaw your shrimp overnight in the fridge in a bowl covered in plastic wrap or you can use my fast thawing method. That’s the way I do it most often and you can have the shrimp thawed in just a few minutes.
Make sure to use a combo of fresh and powdered garlic to get that full punch of flavor and for heaven sake–use fresh parsley. It’s dirt cheap and tastes good all year.
Baked Shrimp Scampi Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 pounds large frozen shrimp (RAW deveined, and peeled)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves medium garlic peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper optional
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- the juice of one lemon
- 1 16 ounce box vermicelli
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
Instructions
- Thaw shrimp in the fridge overnight or in ice water (about 30 minutes) on the counter
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a 9x13 baking dish add shrimp,olive oil, garlic, garlic powder, red pepper, salt, and parsley
- Stir to coat and bake uncovered until the shrimp are pink throughout--about 15 minutes, turning once.
- While the shrimp cook, In a large pot of salted water, cook pasta until just tender but still firm; drain and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil; keep hot
- Remove the shrimp from oven and add melted butter, Parmesan and bread crumbs.
- Add the lemon juice to the shrimp and toss it all together with the pasta.
- Serve warm.
I would like to serve this on a rehearsal dinner buffet (50 plus people) as my seafood pasta entree. Do you think it can be successfully served as a buffet item?
Hi Joanna, Yes I think it will work just fine! Any time you let pasta sit you do run the risk of it clumping a bit but the butter and oil in the recipe will help prevent that. Do a trial run on the recipe and see how you like it, if you want to tweak anything and then serve your final version at the rehearsal. Never serve an untested recipe to a crowd–that’s a safe tip from someone who has cooked for lots of people. 🙂 I’m sure you’ll love it though. –Rachel
SOUNDS DELICIOUS! I’m a little confused because in the intro it says the shrimp bake in 15 minutes, but, in the actual directions, it says to bake covered for 25 minutes and then uncovered for an additional 10 minutes. I’d hate to overcook the shrimp, so, which would be the correct cooking time. Thanks, and hoping for a speedy response as I’m hoping to cook this tomorrow for company.
Well Melanie you should be confused because I wrote that recipe back in the day before I had a clue about what in the world I was doing. 😉 I went back through the recipe and updated it and made sure everything was right and would give you the best results. Remember the size of your shrimp will determine the cook time. I recommended large here and that’s fine just don’t do jumbo. If you use medium ones just turn them after about 10 minutes and keep an eye on them. When they are no longer gray on either side, they’re done. 🙂 I hope you enjoy this dish. We still love it here! –Rachel
Thank you so much! Looking forward to a delicious meal!
A rich, fast, flavorful dinner treat.
Oh Rachel, I love shrimp scampi and this sounds awesome!! Thanks so much for the Nutrition Facts and WW Points +. This is so doable on WW, that’s why I love it so.
I know WW has been a big success for my husband and I got really familiar with the program since I make all his meals and pack his lunch every day. He’s so spoiled! I know not all of my recipes are something that you will want to blow half a day’s points on Kim, but at least knowledge is power and you can say “I know that I can have shrimp scampi, but I can only have a little bit and it will be X number of points.” Then you don’t have to wonder what you just ate and if you blew your daily goal. I’ll try to help.
And if you read the post, I usually try to offer ways to lighten a dish too. In this one, you could drop the butter completely, add more lemon and just use the olive oil and add a splash of chicken or veggie stock to make more of a brothy feel. The end result would still be great.
Thanks for your faithful readership Kim 🙂
Thanks so much Rachel for your reply. That meant a lot to me. Your hubby is so lucky to have you fixing for him!! I hope he has continued success! Wish we were close neighbors, I know we would be good friends. I think you are a friend with a back in the day friend of mine, Val Lynn Scudder-Trudell. Take care and I look forward to what comes next!
Oh yes–Val is my first cousin! I’ve never met her in person though. Isn’t that amazing?