This may be one of the easiest and fastest pasta dishes that I know how to make. Aside from just throwing some spaghetti, butter, and parm in a bowl, obviously. I think shrimp scampi is one of those things people think is way more complicated to make than it actually is just because of how much flavor you can get out of it. In reality, it's pretty much just shrimp boiled in butter and garlic with a couple extra steps to make it even better. The only way to make that even better is by adding pasta to the mix.

Really, once you've done this a couple times, you can literally throw this together in the time it takes to just cook your pasta.

Recipe:

Optional prep: If your shrimp are fully thawed, you can toss them in some olive oil, minced/crushed garlic, and optional red chili flakes and allow them to marinade for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator. I actually do this recipe with my shrimp frozen, so that's not what I do, but you can get a lot more flavor in there this way.

Shrimp cook fast, so you'll likely want to get your pasta of choice going first if doing this with dried store-bought pasta.

In a medium (smallish with high wall) saucepan w/ lid, heat a glug of extra virgin olive oil with two crushed gloves of garlic and 3 pats of butter. If you are using frozen shrimp, like me, add them in and cover. Swirl the pan around occasionally, but do not open as you want the steam to help get the shrimp thawed through. If your shrimp are thawed, you don't need to cover, simply throw them in along with your marinade liquid if applicable. Cook the shrimp until pink or just done and remove shrimp from the pan and set aside. If going with the frozen method, ensure they are fully thawed and cooked through before removing from the skillet. In the pan, add an additional 4 pats of butter, a good glug of a dry white wine, and a lemon's worth of juice. Reduce the liquid down until all the alcohol has cooked away and the volume has reduced by about half. At this point add your shrimp back in and cook in the reduced liquid for an additional couple of minutes. You do want to be careful here. If you cook for too long or too hot your sauce can and will separate.

Pull the shrimp aside one more time and dump all of your scampi liquid into your cooked and drained pasta. Toss to coat. Plate pasta, add your shrimp, and top with a nice helping of shredded parm cheese and some freshly ground black pepper.