A Classic Dish - Shrimp Scampi

Little did I know when I was making dinner last night, that I was making one of the Classic Dishes that were part of the Elimination Challenge on Top Chef last night! Not that I could ever compete with chefs and be judged as they are, but kind of funny none-the-less. I have been waiting patiently for this show to come back on, and last night did not disappoint. This season’s crew seem to have some impressive training behind them, so it should make for some interesting challenges. Last night, was a prime example. There were some incredible looking dishes that I would have loved to try, and I think they may have the recipes available on the website - yeah! I wasn’t terribly surprised by who went home, but that final judging was a bit uncomfortable to watch since they all had to squirm as they were asked about their dishes.

On to the dinner I made! I wanted to make Shrimp Scampi, and since I haven’t really made it before I went searching for a recipe. Big surprise… I found one in Ellie Krieger’s new cookbook! Her recipe did have the addition of artichoke hearts in it, but my Husband was not in the mood for them so we left them out this time. If there ever was a 30 minute meal, this one qualifies! I was serving it with linguine, so I had the pasta doing it’s thing while I got everything ready and began cooking the shrimp. Start to finish, I’d say it was ready in about 20 minutes. Can’t complain about that for a weeknight meal.

The verdict? Everyone enjoyed it, except my lovely boys did not care for the chopped parsley – to which I said “pick it off if you don’t like it”. Yep, mean Mom, here! Next time we have this, I’ll be adding the artichokes. I would even say that another swap could be to halve some cherry tomatoes and toss them in just after the shrimp starts to cook to warm them up. Of course, that doesn’t make it the “classic” shrimp scampi dish, but then I’m not competing for Top Chef!