Chili Honey Shrimp Scampi
Chili Honey Shrimp Scampi
A fun and easy seafood pasta, perfect for date night! The chili honey adds a special twist that is sooo addicting!
Ingredients
- 4 TBSP butter (1/4 cup)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- 1/2 TBSP finely chopped lemon zest
- 1 TBSP honey
- 1 tsp dried red chili flakes
- 1/2 pound cooked shrimp, tails removed
- 1 pound fresh linguine
Directions
- Step 1 If you’re making your pasta fresh, make ahead of time since the shrimp and sauce cook up fast. When you’re ready to cook, start boiling water for pasta and cook at the same time you start your sauce.
- Step 2 Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet (or dutch oven) over medium heat.
- Step 3 Stir in garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Step 4 Add wine and lemon juice to skillet. Bring to a boil and boil for 30 seconds.
- Step 5 Now reduce the heat to medium-low. Add shrimp to the skillet and stir into the sauce for 2 minutes until shrimp is heated through and coated in the sauce.
- Step 6 Add pasta to the skillet, then add honey, lemon zest and red chili and toss together. Serve warm, topped with Parmesan cheese (and extra red chili if you prefer a spicier dish!).
We are big believers in carving out time for “date night” in our family, and now that we have a baby on board – we have learned to make time whenever we can. Even what may seem like just a random Tuesday evening can be transformed into date night, as long as you make a point to spend the night together doing something you enjoy – in our case: dinner and a movie! You don’t even need to plan it that far in advance, some of our more enjoyable date nights have been spontaneous, spur of the moment ideas. This week for example, we realized we were both working from home on Wednesday, so Tuesday seemed like the perfect night to relax and enjoy a nice home cooked meal.
We had some leftover shrimp (frozen) that we didn’t use up on Thanksgiving, so we built the recipe around that. We were both in the mood for pasta too, so Shrimp Scampi seemed like our best bet, but obviously we wanted to put our own twist on it. We’ve both become obsessed with chili honey this year (I love it drizzled on pizza – especially our Chicken Pizza Margherita) and somehow that became the inspiration for this recipe. It was a gamble, but one we were pretty confident would pay off – boy did it ever! It may sound a little out there to someone who’s a fan of traditional scampi, but the flavor is addicting! The acidity of the lemon and white wine provide a great balance to the sweetest of the honey, and the red chili flakes provide some added depth to the sauce. The flavor of the sauce is almost akin to a sweet buttery lobster. Yes, seriously. (I knew I’d have you at lobster!)
Another great touch we added was fresh herb pasta. Making pasta from scratch makes all the difference in any homemade dish. And with our Phillips pasta maker, achieving fresh delicious pasta is a breeze! I know, I know, it sounds too good to be true but I swear this gadget is worth every penny. Tonight’s linguine had a touch of our Tuscan herb blend, but you can really use a range of dried herbs (tarragon, basil, oregano, thyme) to add that little something extra. The King Arthur flour is a great base for this pasta as well.
^our Phillips Compact Pasta Maker, Viva Collection (originally purchased from Williams & Sonoma, but now available on Amazon!)
Once the pasta is made, just follow the rest of these simple steps to your perfect homemade shrimp scampi – you won’t be disappointed!
Step 1: Sauté butter and garlic (this step smells delicious!)
Step 2: Add white wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil:
Step 3: Add shrimp to sauce. Sauté for 1-2 minutes until shrimp is coated in the sauce and heated through. (NOTE: if you plan to use uncooked shrimp, make sure they are shelled and deveined, tails removed. Sauté for about 4 minutes, until they turn pink.)
Step 4: Add pasta, then top with honey, red pepper flakes, and lemon zest (this is our favorite zester!). Toss together and serve!
Step 5: Devour!
