Grilled Shrimp Scampi--Style

Grilled Shrimp Scampi-Style

This recipe is from a Time Life book called Great Dinners from Life, written by Eleanor Graves in 1969. As stated in the foreword, “This book is for people who like to have friends in to dinner. It is also a book for people who, every once in a while, are willing to put a little extra effort into cooking those dinners—provided that they know the results are going to be worth it.  

“In Venice, the true scampi are traditionally grilled in their shell, and purists add only a little sunflower-seed oil and butter, and scorn any other seasoning. In the U.S. when jumbo shrimp take the place of scampi, the sauce is a heady one, flavored with parsley, lemon juice and a lot of garlic.”

You will need big shrimp, less than 15 shrimp to a pound. Above all, they must still have their shells on, or you will have an entirely different dish*.

For six people:

36 jumbo shrimp

6 cloves of garlic

2 tsp salt

¾ cup butter

¾ cup olive oil

¼ cup minced parsley

4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground black pepper

Parsley sprigs for garnish

Preheat broiler. Use a sharp knife or scissors to split the raw unshelled shrimp lengthwise, almost to the tail, leaving all the feet on, and the shell intact*. Remove the sand veins and pat the shrimp dry.

Crush the garlic, combine with salt. Melt butter and stir in garlic, salt, oil, parsley, lemon juice and pepper.

Holding the shrimp by the tails, dip them one at a time into the butter mixture. Arrange in a single layer in one or two baking dishes—flesh side up. Don’t crowd them. They may look droopy while raw, but they will curl and “stand” better as they cook. Stir butter sauce and spoon over shrimp. Graves says to broil for 15 minutes six inches from the heat. Shrimp in the shell will take longer that shelled shrimp, but this may be too long depending on your broiler. I checked several sources and the amount of time varies widely.  I'd say you need to keep an eye on them and when the shells start to darken, test one. 

Serve with plenty of sauce. Garnish with parsley sprigs. 

So, hands down… if you make this like Graves says, the shrimp will taste amazing (truly, some of the best I have ever tasted.) Problem is, when the shrimp are straight out of the broiler, they will burn your fingers when your try to peel them. And they will be messy for the guests. If you can wait a bit for them to cool somewhat, and your guests are okay with getting their fingers messy, then go for it.

I have made this recipe many times. It is definitely worth it. I have made some minor modifications:

*My work-around is to peel the shrimp, but leave the tails on. I take the shrimp shells and boil them in melted butter and oil for as long as I have time for. Then strain to remove the shells. The essence of the shrimp shells is imparted into the butter. I think the taste is considerably better if you cook the shrimp in the shells, but it makes for a messier dinner party.  But sometimes that is part of the fun.