Shrimp with garlic and herb butter over pasta

Ahh, summer is finally here. No wait, not yet.        Now!        No, wait.        Yes, now!         Wait a second ...

Whatever. Summer is almost here, sometimes.

A nice refreshing summer pasta is garlic and butter tossed shrimp, sometimes called Shrimp Scampi. Again, this is a really easy way to put it together, and you could get creative by added a few other ingredients, such as chives or nutmeg. Feel free to experiment, you can't hurt the shrimp's feelings.

You will need (for two people):

• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• About a tablespoon of chopped parsley
• 25 grams of butter
• Some bread (to make garlic bread on the side)
• Some parmesan 
• Enough shrimp for two (I roughly assume a tight fistfull per person).
• Pasta (follow directions on the box)

The main flavour to take from this dish is garlic, so lets start by chopping up the garlic.

Next, chop up some fresh parsley. If you don't have fresh parsley, use that dried green stuff that comes in the bottle labeled "Parsley Flakes", thats okay too.

Put your butter in a small saucepan on low-med heat and let start to melt.

Wait for the butter to meld completely and start to bubble. Wait for it ...

Add the chopped garlic and half the chopped parsley into your boiling butter.

You can let the garlic roast in the butter for as long or as short as you want; I like my garlic a bit browned, but not everybody does. Just keep monitoring your garlic, it will be soft and delicious in less than two minutes, and will brown just about after three minutes.

As soon as your garlic is browned, or done as you like, take the pan of the heat. I'm going to add some of my garlic on my halved ciabatta bread, and you can use whatever bread you want. Even sliced sandwich bread, if you like, but cut it into smaller strips so its easier to handle.

And then I'm going to top the bread with some parmesan. I'm not ready to put it in the oven yet, so I will leave it on the counter for a while, which also allows the melted butter to really permeate the bread.

Its time to start with the shrimp. I'm using uncooked but peeled shrimp. Now, shrimp cook quickly, so start your pasta boiling just before you start cooking the shrimp.

In a skillet, add some olive oil and butter, let it heat up on medium and then toss in your shrimp. Once they start turning pink, toss them around a bit and add your spices. I have added black and pink ground peppercorns; and again, feel free to experiment a bit.

The shrimp is done when it is all curled up and evenly pink.

At this stage, I'm going to add the rest of that butter and parsley I roasted, and toss them around with the shrimp. This is also a great time to put the garlic bread in the oven, just to grill it a bit to melt the cheese.

And finally, toss your cooked and drained pasta around in the shrimp and butter sauce, and serve. Top with the remaining parsley and sprinkle some parmesan if you like.

Now, I normally like my shrimp scampi served over Angel hair pasta, but I was unable to find any where I live. I personally feel that the smaller the pasta, the better for the butter.

That being said, I've seen shrimp scampi server over penne; I didn't try it so I can't opine one way or another, but the point is more that there are no rules here.

Unless you're Italian and you tell me there are rules.

Enjoy with a glass of crisp white wine.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki