Baked Shrimp Scampi

Admittedly, this is not the best picture that I have ever taken, but I literally took it in the dark.  My apologies.  However, it was not a bad enough picture for me to not share it with you.  This is hands down the best shrimp scampi that I have ever had.  I have made this a few times before and I love it more every time.  It is scrumptious.  It is easy.  You can make it ahead of time.  And, it looks impressive.  See how fancy the tails look?  Your guests will ooh and ahh for sure.  It is also an excuse to consume large quantities of garlic butter soaked bread.  You cannot go wrong.

This recipe is an Ina recipe, so you know that it you follow it, it will work.  Her recipes are fool proof if you ask me.  I did make a change from the original however.  When Ina makes her garlic butter, she adds an egg yolk.  I chose not to add the egg yolk because I knew that I was not going to use the entire amount of butter, and I did not want to risk having undercooked egg on whatever I chose to use the butter for.  I have done it both ways and cannot tell a difference, so the choice is yours.

I made this for Christmas dinner a few years ago and it was so perfect for the holiday.  I am not a turkey-for-Christmas kind of girl.  I make something different every year and this year I wanted something easy and special at the same time.  I wanted to enjoy Christmas morning with my babies and not worry about having to make a big diner later in the day.  I made the butter the day before and I had all of the other parts of the dinner prepped and waiting for me.  Late in the afternoon, I marinaded my shrimp and then assembled it and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to bake it off.  I did one big casserole dish that day, but for this go around, I put the shrimp in individual dishes and everyone got their own.

For the shrimp and marinade:

2 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons white wine
salt and pepper

For the garlic butter:

1 1/2 sticks room temperature butter
1/4 cup minced shallots
3 Tablespoons fresh minced parsley
1 teaspoon fresh minced rosemary
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 large egg yolk (I left this out)
2/3 cup panko crumbs

Put all of the garlic butter ingredients except for the Panko crumbs in the food processor.  (You can also do it in a bowl and just mash with a fork, you know me, I am lazy.)

Process the butter until smooth.  Transfer to a bowl.

Mix in the panko crumbs.

This is what it looks like all mixed together.

You can take out a little bit of the butter before you add the panko to use for something else if you are not going to use the full 2 pounds of shrimp.  More on that in a minute.

I was only making dinner for 3 people so I only used a little over a pound and a quarter of shrimp.

They were already peeled and cleaned so all I had to do was butterfly them so that they would sit all pretty like they do.  Just cut a small slit in the bottom of the shrimp and fan out the pieces a little so that it will stand up with its tail curled over like this.  I told you that it looks fancy!

Mix together the olive oil, wine, and salt and pepper for the marinade.

Let them sit for a bit in the marinade.  Since there is no citrus in this marinade I think that you can get away with a few hours before you use them.  I let them sit in the fridge for about 2 hours before I assembled them and let them sit again for about another 2 hours.

Arrange the shrimp in either a 14-inch gratin dish or in single serving dished like so.  Place the cut side down and let the tails curl over and arrange the shrimp in a circular shape.

Carefully spread the butter mixture over the top of the shrimp.  You may have to do a little tail rearranging.  Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp.  At this point, I put them back in the fridge until I was ready to bake them off.  About 2 hours or so.

Bake the shrimp in a 425 degree oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly and the shrimp have turned pink.  I wanted my butter mixture to get a little color so I put them under the broiler for a minute or so also.

I cooked some pasta and tossed it in some of the leftover garlic butter, a glug (that is a technical term obviously) of white wine, and a few squeezes of lemon juice.  Gave it a good sprinkling of salt and pepper and served it on the side with some lemon wedges.  I also steamed some asparagus (which is divine dipped in the garlic butter after the shrimp are gone) and had some crusty bread to sop up the rest of the butter.  Not a light meal by any means, but a good one.  Thanks again Ina!

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