Shrimp Scampi and Linguini

Here's a fantastic dish that I recently had when I was in Las Vegas at a restaurant called Roas. Roas is a famous old New York Italian landmark visited by all the movie stars over the years. They've had a restaurant in Las Vegas for a few years now.

I ordered the shrimp scampi because it was a lesser expensive items on the menu at only $38.00. I thought their shrimp scampi and linguini was off the chart, but it was pretty high in butter content. My version looks and tasted pretty much like Roas, but I cut the butter from 1/2 a cube to just one tablespoon, a tablespoon of olive oil and a drizzle of olive oil in the end.

Ingredients:
1 pound Barilla linguini pasta
1 pound extra large shrimp, 10 - 12 per pound
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup reserved pasta water
1/4 cup Italian parsley
Zest of 1 lemon

Preparation:

Make sure to buy the uncooked, extra large shrimp, shelled and deveined if possible. All shrimp are frozen so that is not a problem if that's what's available. You want to serve 6 shrimp per serving.
 

Take your uncooked, shelled and deveined shrimp and add to a medium size ceramic bowl, or a plastic bag works fine too. Add the minced garlic and marinate for 30 minutes.
 

Heat you largest stock pot with water and 2 tablespoons of salt and bring to a boil. Add the Barilla linguini and cook to perfection; al dente in 12 - 13 minutes.
 

The shrimp will cook pretty quickly 3 - 4 minutes max. You want the shrimp and pasta to be done at the same time, so start cooking you shrimp with only 4 minutes left to cook the pasta. While the pasta is finishing cooking, take your 12" sauté pan and heat to medium high. When hot add the olive oil, butter, shrimp, garlic and lemon zest then the wine. When done, remove the shrimp and set a side and you're ready for the pasta.
 

When the pasta is done, drain and add 2 portions of linguini to the sauté pan that you cooked the shrimp. Add 1/2 the Italian parsley and 1/4 cup pasta water, more if you feel it's needed. The linguini is already hot, so you just want to toss for a couple of minutes all the garlic, butter, olive oil, wine, lemon zest and parsley. Lastly, add back the shrimp just to put a little warmth on them.


Plate the linguini and place 6 shrimp scampi on top of the linguini, sprinkle on some Italian parsley and drizzle with olive oil to finish.