This posting is inspired by an item appearing on a certain Chef John’s website foodwishes.com. I suspect even without my self-imposed enhancements this dish is a winner, so I offer many thanks to Chef John for the inspiration. It appears below after the scholarly dissertation that follows:
To begin I must point out that I discovered the Chef’s recipe navigating Allrecipes.com under the search term “shrimp scampi.” Aside from leading me to a good site for this topic, as well as a fine recipe, the exercise opened up the opportunity for me to step into the classroom to take aim at all those chefs and restaurants that use the terms in combination on their menus. “Check out tonight’s shrimp scampi special!!”
Although demonstrating a knowledge of the issue Chef John unabashedly ignores any difference among shrimp, prawns and scampi and makes no apologies. He believes they are one and the same animal, the only difference lying in local usage. Prawns cover all species and are served in Great Britain. All three terms, shrimp, scampi or prawns are used interchangeably in the U.S.
Now for the facts: Actually gamberi is Italian for shrimp, and scampi is Italian for prawns. Crevettes and langoustines are found on menus in France, the former being shrimp and the latter prawns. Neither country considers the two terms as interchangeable as far as I can tell.
Basically I concluded that two of the three animals on the list, shrimp and prawns, are pretty much the same, differing mainly by size. However in Italy scampi are considered different creatures, distinct from the smaller shrimp which, as noted, are called gamberi.
So ordering “shrimp scampi” in Italy is sort of like ordering a dish that might be called “Lobster crawfish” on the menu. The U.S. restaurants who feature “shrimp scampi” are unwittingly leading the customer to think the dish consists of one animal variety when in fact the description technically covers two different species.
Like crawfish, scampi look like lobsters that failed to grow up, having a hard shell and long thin claws. These are called langoustines in France and have their own taxonomic description (nephrops norvegicus) . The smaller shrimp varieties can be small or large, even jumbo, and have an infinite number of official names within the same family but are essentially interchangeable.
To be sure I consulted the Italian websites, which are not always reliable, just as the ones in the U.S. However I managed to land on one that I consider authoritative that clearly speaks of shrimp (gamberi) and scampi as entirely different animals. Scampi are the larger species associated with the French “langoustines” mentioned above. Gamberi are what you use to make shrimp cocktail.
So it’s OK to think of shrimp as prawns and vice versa but don’t expect to find true scampi at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant down the road from you. Luigi probably has never served real scampi in his life. Luigi does however proudly serve “shrimp scampi” most often with overcooked shrimp drenched in garlic oil and spread over a half-pound of overcooked linguine marinara.
Last word: Some food writers have tried to cover up the confusion by calling “shrimp scampi” a distinctive way of cooking shrimp. After all the digging around on the web I decided I don’t buy that explanation. Nice try though. Just remember that there’s no such thing as “shrimp scampi” in Italy.
Time’s up. School bell having rung here now is my variation of Chef John’s excellent, and to my reckoning authentic recipe for garlic shrimp, otherwise known at Luigi’s as “shrimp scampi”. My additions are white wine (very typical in Italy), home made roasted red peppers peppers, and the yellow or red cherry tomatoes. Down the road someday I’ll look up some dishes that call for langoustines or scampi.
Garlic Shrimp/Prawns but not Scampi
for 4-5 persons
- 1 lb. raw jumbo shrimp (21-26 count)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp. capers plus 1 tbsp. caper brine
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup home-made roasted red peppers thinly sliced
- 6 cloves minced garlic
- 1 cup yellow or red cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 4 pats butter
- 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
- salt to tasted
- 1 lb. linguine entirely optional (but common in Italy for what it’s worth)
Set up your mis en place with the lemon juice, white wine, olive oil, capers and brine, parsley, peppers, tomatoes.
Peel and devein the shrimp leaving the last segment intact. (I don’t devein the smaller shrimp).
In a saute pan bring up to high heat the 1/4 cup of oil and the butter. The idea now is to sear the shrimp quickly without fully cooking it. Cook the shrimp until it just begins to lose its translucence. This is the tricky part, requiring a full glass of Barbera for fortification – for you not the dish. Then add all the other ingredients except the parsley and bring back to high heat. Stir vigorously until the shrimp have lost all translucence. Immediately remove from heat and allow to stand for a minute, constantly stirring. Stir in the parsley.
If you want to serve this over linguine follow the box directions. Otherwise set the timer for 9 minutes (al dente) or 10-11 minutes (fully cooked) and be sure to use plenty of salted boiling water. Throwing in some olive oil will not prevent sticking so save your money. Just keep stirring periodically with a wooden fork (wooden forks are hard to find so it’s ok to use one of those dumb plastic spaghetti spoons that look like a turned-up cupped hand asking for a tip no example of which can be found in my kitchen).
I make this dish often but can’t resist the temptation to add a generous dose of finely chopped anchovy each time. This is making me hungry already.