Shrimp Scampi
Shrimp scampi sautees large shrimp in butter with sliced garlic until just pink, then deglazes the pan with white wine that reduces and emulsifies with the butter into a light, glossy sauce. Cooking the garlic slowly in butter over moderate heat draws out its sweetness without turning it bitter or brown. The shrimp need roughly ninety seconds per side - enough for the exterior to pick up flavor from the garlic butter while the interior stays tender. White wine provides acidity and aromatic complexity as its alcohol cooks off, and a splash of starchy pasta water added when tossing with spaghetti gives the sauce enough body to coat each strand. Lemon juice squeezed in at the end cuts through the butter's richness, and red pepper flakes leave a gentle lingering heat.
Adjust Servings
Instructions
- 1
Cook spaghetti al dente.
- 2
Melt butter and sauté garlic.
- 3
Add shrimp and cook until pink.
- 4
Add white wine and simmer 2 minutes.
- 5
Add pasta, lemon juice, parsley, red pepper flakes and toss.
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
Tips
Nutrition (per serving)
Goes Well With
Korean Bokbunja Wine (Black Raspberry Soju-Infused Fruit Wine)
Bokbunja-ju is a deep ruby Korean fruit wine made by layering fresh black raspberries and sugar in a sterilized jar, then covering them with soju along with a strip of lemon peel and a cinnamon stick. At 1.2 kg of fresh fruit per batch, the berry flavor comes through with real concentration. The jar rests in a cool place for at least thirty days and is shaken gently once a week to dissolve the sugar evenly throughout the liquid. After straining through fine cloth, additional bottle aging softens the acidity and rounds out the berry aroma, producing a wine where the warm spice undertones from the cinnamon balance the tartness of the raspberries.
Gotgam Cream Cheese Roll (Dried Persimmon Rolls)
Gotgam cream cheese roll is a no-cook Korean dessert that requires nothing more than a knife, a bowl, and a refrigerator. Dried persimmons are slit open and flattened into thin sheets, each one acting as the outer wrapper. The filling is cream cheese mixed with honey and fresh lemon juice to balance its natural richness with acidity, and finely chopped walnuts are folded in throughout to add a crunchy, nutty element to every bite. The filling is spread across the opened persimmon, which is then rolled tightly and wrapped in plastic wrap. Twenty minutes in the refrigerator firms the roll enough to slice cleanly. Dipping the knife in warm water and wiping it dry before each cut produces the smoothest cross-sections. The finished slices reveal clearly defined layers: the chewy, caramel-sweet dried persimmon on the outside, the tangy cream cheese in the middle, and flecks of walnut distributed throughout. The combination makes it a natural pairing with wine or a polished addition to a traditional holiday table.
Myeongran Lemon Cream Fettuccine
Myeongran lemon cream fettuccine wraps wide pasta ribbons in a sauce made from salted pollock roe, heavy cream, butter, and lemon zest. The small eggs of the roe are left intact and stirred into the sauce off the heat so they stay soft and burst with briny flavor when bitten rather than turning granular or hard. Garlic bloomed in butter forms the aromatic base, and a mixture of heavy cream with milk tempers the roe's saltiness into a smooth, balanced coating. Using lemon zest rather than juice adds a bright citrus fragrance without diluting the sauce or introducing acidity that would curdle the cream. Parmigiano-Reggiano deepens the savory foundation, and fettuccine's broad, flat surface holds the thick cream more effectively than thinner pasta shapes. The entire dish takes about twenty minutes from start to plate, making it a practical weeknight option that does not sacrifice depth of flavor for speed. The critical technique -- incorporating the roe off the heat -- keeps the texture creamy throughout and prevents the eggs from cooking into tough, unpleasant morsels.
Pork Bossam Apple Mustard Salad
Bossam apple mustard salad uses thinly sliced cold boiled pork belly as its main component, arranged over shredded cabbage, cucumber, and crisp apple slices, then finished with a sharp mustard-soy vinaigrette. Chilling the boiled pork completely before slicing is not optional: warm pork crumbles under the knife, while cold pork yields clean, even cuts that hold their shape on the plate. Cabbage and cucumber provide a firm, crunchy base whose texture directly contrasts with the soft, fatty pork, and the apple slices introduce a cool sweetness along with a welcome burst of moisture. Korean hot mustard, dissolved generously into a soy-vinegar dressing, releases a nasal, sinus-clearing heat with each bite that cuts through the richness of the pork fat without the acidity becoming the dominant note. Perilla leaves placed underneath the pork act as both a flavoring layer and a suppressor of any residual pork odor, their herbal intensity complementing the mustard without competing with it. The salad works equally well as a standalone meal and as a second-day use for leftover bossam from the previous night, which is one reason it appears in Korean home kitchens as often as it does.
More Recipes
Kimchi Garlic Butter Shrimp Spaghetti
Kimchi garlic butter shrimp spaghetti is an oil-based pasta where garlic browned in butter and fermented kimchi together amplify the natural sweetness of shrimp. The shrimp are seared first in olive oil to build fond on the pan, then garlic and chopped kimchi go into the same pan to absorb those flavors. Butter and starchy pasta water are emulsified into a glossy, light coating rather than a heavy sauce. Gochugaru provides a gentle background heat, and a squeeze of lemon at the end lifts the richness. Sliced scallions finish the dish with color and a mild onion note.
Creamy Garlic Shrimp Pasta
Creamy garlic shrimp pasta begins with a slow, low-heat saute of minced garlic in olive oil and butter. The garlic should be pulled when it turns pale gold rather than brown, which preserves its sweet, mellow depth without any bitterness. Shrimp go in next and cook for roughly two minutes in total, just long enough for both sides to turn pink. At that point the flesh is at its sweetest and the texture is still springy. The shrimp come out of the pan and rest while heavy cream goes in, simmering over medium-low heat for two to three minutes. During that simmer the garlic-infused fat and the shrimp juices left in the pan dissolve into the cream, building the sauce's depth without any additional flavoring. Spaghetti is boiled one minute short of the package time so it finishes cooking in the sauce rather than on its own. Grated Parmesan and a small ladle of pasta water go in together, and the mixture is tossed until the cheese melts into a smooth, silky coating that clings evenly to the noodles. The reserved shrimp return for a final thirty seconds of warming, just enough to heat through without firming up, so every bite carries both the tender sweetness of the seafood and the rich, savory garlic cream.
Soy Butter Steak Garlic Spaghetti
Thick-cut sirloin seared at high heat, then glazed in soy sauce and butter, forms the base of this steak pasta. The fond left in the pan gets deglazed with soy sauce and butter, then emulsified with pasta water into a thin, shiny coating that clings to each strand without turning greasy. Generous garlic browned in olive oil beforehand builds a deep, roasted-garlic base that runs through the entire sauce, and tsuyu -- a Japanese seasoning concentrate made from kombu and bonito -- adds the round umami depth of dashi without any extra steps. The steak is best cooked to medium-rare and sliced against the grain before laying over the pasta; resting the meat first keeps the juices from running out when cut. Black pepper and sliced scallions cut through the richness at the end. The full cook time is about 20 minutes, and pasta water volume controls the final sauce consistency.
Chicken Marsala
Chicken Marsala pounds chicken breast thin, dredges it in flour, and pan-sears it to a golden crust before building a sauce from Marsala wine, sliced cremini mushrooms, chicken stock, and heavy cream. Pounding the breast to an even thickness ensures uniform heat transfer so the interior stays moist while the exterior browns quickly, and the flour coating creates the browned fond on the pan surface that becomes the sauce's flavor base. Deglazing with Marsala wine lifts that fond while the wine reduces, concentrating its sweetness, acidity, and characteristic walnut-like nuance into a deeply layered sauce. Mushrooms must be spread in a single layer and cooked until their moisture fully evaporates, otherwise they release liquid into the sauce and dilute its intensity. Heavy cream goes in at the end to give the sauce a velvety body, but the heat should be reduced before adding it to prevent the cream from breaking. Dry Marsala is essential here because sweet Marsala produces an excessively sugary sauce that masks the wine's complexity, turning a nuanced pan sauce into something that tastes more like a dessert glaze. Serve with mashed potatoes, pasta, or steamed rice and spoon the sauce generously over everything.
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Garlic and Olive Oil Pasta)
Spaghetti aglio e olio appears in Italian cookbooks as far back as the 19th century, making it one of the oldest documented pasta preparations in the canon. The restraint is the point: five ingredients, no sauce made separately, and the whole dish done in under twenty minutes. Thinly sliced garlic goes into extra virgin olive oil over low heat, slowly transferring its flavor into the fat - the temperature must stay low enough that the garlic turns golden but never brown, since browning brings bitterness. Dried chili flakes follow, infusing a second layer of heat into the oil. The technical turning point is adding starchy pasta water and tossing the pan hard over high heat: the starch links the oil and water into an emulsion that clings to every strand rather than pooling at the bottom. Skip this step and the dish separates on the plate. Parmigiano is not traditional but has become near-universal; shaved over the top, it adds a salty, crystalline crunch. The finished pasta should look barely coated, each strand glistening rather than swimming in sauce. Getting that result consistently is what separates people who understand the dish from people who have simply followed the ingredient list.
Gamtae Butter Scallop Spaghetti
Preparing gamtae butter scallop spaghetti requires high heat to develop a properly caramelized exterior on the scallops. This process involves searing the scallops for ninety seconds on each side to create a deep brown crust. Before the scallops ever touch the pan, it is essential to ensure they are completely dry by patting them down thoroughly with paper towels. Removing all surface moisture prevents the scallops from steaming in the pan. If the scallops remain damp, they will turn out soft and pale instead of achieving the intended texture and color. After the scallops have been removed from the heat, the remaining browned bits, known as the fond, serve as the primary flavor foundation for the sauce. Garlic and butter are added to the same pan, followed by white wine which is used to deglaze the surface. As the liquid simmers, the alcohol evaporates, leaving behind a clean acidity that balances the richness of the other ingredients. The sauce is finished by swirling in cold butter at the final stage, which creates a smooth and stable emulsion that coats each spaghetti strand evenly. The final component is gamtae seaweed, which has a flavor profile that is notably more delicate and milder than standard nori. By crumbling this seaweed over the pasta immediately before it is served, you introduce a subtle oceanic quality that bridges the gap between the richness of the butter and the natural sweetness of the scallop meat. To complete the preparation, a measured amount of fresh lemon juice is squeezed over the dish. This acidity sharpens the various flavor components and reduces the perceived heaviness of the fats, ensuring that the pasta remains balanced throughout the meal.