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Shrimp Piccata Spaghetti
![Shrimp Piccata Spaghetti](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/03/23/dining/kc-shrimp-piccata-spaghetti/merlin_202696317_39223c7d-c01e-4044-869f-fcf096680130-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 1pound spaghetti
- 3tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1medium shallot, finely chopped (Ā½ cup)
- 3garlic cloves, minced
- 1pound cleaned medium shrimp, chopped into Ā½-inch pieces
- 1cup thawed frozen peas
- 2tablespoons capers, plus 2 tablespoons caper brine
- 3tablespoons lemon juice
- 2tablespoons chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain pasta.
- Step 2
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium and melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in it. Add shallot and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, 30 seconds.
- Step 3
Reduce heat to medium-low, add shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shrimp just turn opaque, 4 to 5 minutes. If the shrimp is done before the pasta finishes, remove the skillet from heat.
- Step 4
Return pasta and 1 cup of the reserved pasta water to the large pasta pot and heat over medium. Add the shrimp mixture, peas, capers, caper brine and the remaining 3 tablespoons butter, and season with salt and pepper. Stir vigorously until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
- Step 5
Divide pasta in bowls and garnish with more parsley.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Cut cooking time for the shrimp to no more than 3 minutes.
Added a touch of cream at the end as the sauce did not thicken as expected. Totally delicious and well worth a repeat
INSANELY good, and on the table in 20 mins. To those who donāt get a creamy sauce: boil your pasta in a skillet. Water boils faster, but also gets starchier, and will make a creamier sauce. Used 1.5 lbs shrimp (cook 5 mins), and forgot the lemon and parsley; topped w a bit of parm. SO good.
I did the one-pot method with this, sautƩing the garlic and onion first, then adding shrimp, then pasta and enough water to cover. Boiled till water mostly gone, added peas and capers. Delicious! My husband loved it too.
This was very flavorful, and I will make again. I agree the recipe has too much pasta to sauce/topping. I cut pasta in half, and it was still was a bit over. Also, using long spaghetti noodles on this dish makes it really hard to get pieces of shrimp, capers or scallion in each bite. Next time I will use small rigatoni or shell pasta noodles which will make it much easier to include all the components in each bite.
The dish received high marks at dinner last week, but the "4 to 6 servings" yield seems to be off, as does the ratio of pasta to other ingredients. I used only about 3/4 lb of spaghetti, and our group of four had leftovers even after eating seconds. I felt like I could have used even less pasta while keeping the same amounts of the other ingredients. I also used a fresh lemon for the juice and decided to add the zest, too, which made the dish even brighter.
I made this recipe as written and it was delicious. The only thing I would recommend would be use a different pasta, one that would hold the shrimp, peas, capers, etc, like shells, orecchiette or mezzi rigatoni. Nothing adheres to spaghetti and you wind up with most of the goodies at the bottom of the dish after all the spaghetti is gone
This was a disappointment. Too much pasta, not enough peas or shrimp. Shrimp cooking time is too long.
Really good, easy weeknight dish. As others suggested added lemon zest, a splash of dry vermouth, and also added some pepper flakes to add a bit of spice. Also finished with some parmigiana at the end because why not!? Really good and will make again.
When I am making a dish such as this, I always cook the shrimp first. Usually half way through. I remove it to another dish while I prepare the rest of the dish and add it back at 'the end' of the cooking so it can finish and heat through. Keeps the shrimp from getting rubbery.
I have never tasted this dish before, because all dieticians warn people like me in allergy sensitive health conditions to stay away from any shrimp of seafood. High negative chlorestoral is the least of my many health related concerns. So my only suggestion is that the raw, fully defrosted shrimps can be added without precooking at the very last minute when the pasta is introduced to the sauce. Simply waiting the 3-5 minutes to have the pasta sauce will allow the shrimps to cook sufficiently!
It's not the size of the pot, it's the amount of water.
I, too, have started cooking pasta in a much smaller pot so the water has much more of the starch from the pasta. I haven't tried cooking it in a frying pan yet but will try that next!
Enjoyed making this easy recipe Delicious.I did add 2 Tb spoon dry vermouth and increased the garlic Used Angel hair pasta istead
The family loved this! I added zest from the lemon and more peas than called for. Always trying to up the vegetable delivery. Also used less pasta. Came out creamy and bright, very satisfying.
Pretty average - not a ton of flavor and way too much pasta. NYT shrimp scampi recipe is similar and way better all around.
Delicious! Upped the butter, subbed scallions for the shallot, and garlic powder for the garlic as that was what I had on hand. Followed other reviewers' advice and added some red pepper flakes and cooked the pasta in less water than I normally would to increase starch content.
Agree with others- 1 pound pasta far too much-cut in 1/2
I had a blast cooking the delicious meal! As a beginner chef, this recipe was somewhat easy to follow and execute. I loved to eat this meal and is now going to be a staple in my chef repertoire! š«”š«”
Cooking shrimp that long was way too long. Wanted more sauce. Donāt make again.
Delicious and easy. We cut the pasta in half for a higher sauce to pasta ratio and went with a whole wheat spaghetti. My 4 year old asked if we can have this every week :)
Underwhelming flavour and results. 1 cup reserved pasta water wound up being downright soupy, even though my pasta water is very starchy because I make my own pasta. Won't bother trying to improve for next time, there are probably better ways to use capers and butter.
I whipped this up for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious.
This was good, but surprisingly shy of flavor. I followed the recipe precisely (none of that āI didnāt have shrimp so I used pineapple and an old shoeā stuff); I didnāt think it was possible to use a whole shallot and three cloves of garlic, much less capers and brine and lemon juice and all the rest, and come up so short on depth of flavor. Good, but not as good as I expected.
Way too much capers/brine! We used 1tbl each of capers/brine and the dish tasted like capers. Also very wet. This could have been done much better than itās instructed. I expect more from NYT
I made this and it was delicious. I cooked the shrimp just over 3 minutes. I refused to cut up the shrimps lol, so mine had whole pieces. I used angel hair pasta and cooked it in chicken broth. The peas add a nice pop of sweetness, a good contrast to the briney capers. I added a small amount of evaporated milk, which probably wasn't necessary. I topped with parmesan and a few extra capers in addition to parsley. Will make again!
Used Orechiette-11b Used a splash of wine and some red pepper flakes in with shrimp Added an extra tablespoon of of butter and a splash of cream near the end and some grated lemon zest. Yum!
Made this as the recipe describes, except that a family member doesn't like capers. I substituted castelvetrano olives and the juice from that. Delicious. Looks like I'm behind the times since it's been a couple years since posted, but a timeless recipe will always be good.
We wanted this to have the tart flavor of veal piccata and would add both more lemon juice and more capers and brine next time or else reduce the amount of pasta. Overall was just milder than we expected. Agree with other about adding some zest and like the idea of chile flakes. They are always welcome.
A bit bland and drier than I expected. Iād cook the pasta to within a minute or two of al dente, because it cooks further when mixed with other ingredients. Iād add an anchovy to the shallot and garlic for additional umami.
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