Shrimp Scampi With Orzo Recipe (2024)

Tasty, tasty. I did use Jessica’s suggestion to toast the orzo longer, to a light brown color. Because of that I delayed adding the garlic to avoid burning. Will cook this again.

Easy, very good. IMPORTANT CHANGES: use 1/4 t hot pepper flakes, 1/2 the salt, use 1 1/2 c liquid and taste the orzo after 9 minutes.

This was simple and foolproof — the shrimp cooks perfectly with almost no attention. I toasted the orzo to a deep brown and used lots of parsley at the end, and ended up with something slightly nutty and herbal. Will cook again regularly.

I found 2 cups of water left my shrimp swimming. Next time I’ll use 1 1/2.

12 minutes for orzo is too long. I used a small orchetta and some feta it was fabulous. Some sliced tomatoes on the side with red wine and crusty bread

Wonderful recipe. The orzo actually took longer to cook (14+ minutes) to al dente. Used store-bought seafood stock. Was I supposed to boil the stock before adding it? The recipe offers a choice of boiling water or stock--wasn't sure if "boiling" was modifying all the nouns or just water (oh, the dangers of a liberal arts education!). This recipe will become one of my standard shrimp rotations.

I found simply placing the marinated shrimp on top of the orzo to steam left a slight raw garlic taste, will try again, lightly sauteing (but not fully cooking) the marinated shrimp in the butter and olive oil first to avoid raw garlic taste, removing shrimp, proceeding with the orzo, then finishing by steaming shrimp on orzo at the end. Agree on reducing the amount of liquid to 1-1/2 cups stock. I made quick shrimp stock from the shells removed from shrimp. Nice, light, flavorful dish.

Wow, surprisingly good! Doubled the garlic, and halved the zest, which I felt gave it a dessert-y feel (definitely personal preference). Tossed the toasted orzo with some oregano and thyme, and some fragrant peppercorns. I added a tiny amount of Pecorino Romano at the end as well as chives in lieu of parsley. Hugely successful in the household, will make again... perhaps with a bit of anchovy paste or pine nuts. Perfect for riffing!

Love using orchetta.... little pockets collect juicy oil. I also use cherry multi color tomatoes when the orchetta is cooked and drop the shrimp and tomatoes at the same time and don’t cook more than 2minutes. Colorful and tasty

Excellent flavor and nice presentation. Substituted Israeli pearl couscous for orzo and cooked a little longer. Used homemade clam broth (one cup), quick broth made from shrimp shells (second cup of liquid). Made a huge difference using flavorful seafood broth. Served in large bowls. Two of us ate entire four serving portion.

I made this recipe exactly as described and found there was way too much liquid resulting in me having to cook the orzo to death in order to not have a soup. I would also suggest less red pepper flakes as this was incredibly spicy.

I added a couple of tablespoons of tomato purée to the broth, and cut down the broth to 1.5 cups as suggested here. A large handful of halved cherry tomatoes in the pan with the orzo as it cooked. More garlic than called for. A delicious, deep flavour. Handfuls of rocket and parsley on the finished dish (which was quite wet—like a runny risotto). Green beans on the side. It tasted of summer and the Mediterranean, and even my fussiest daughter liked it. It was lovely, and I will make again

Didn’t have orzo, made with linguine. Used quick stock made from shrimp shells and tails. Diners were delayed, so at halfway point of cooking pasta, had to take it off heat, cover it, and let it sit for 20 minutes in pan before resuming cooking and adding shrimp. This resulted in pasta that had wonderfully absorbed the garlic and stock flavors but was just al dente. Huge hit. Will make it that way again.

Have now prepared again. I tweeked a tiny bit. This time I used seafood broth for cooking liquid. Originally I , too, found the finished product too soupy. Therefore, before adding lemon and parsley and finishing s & p, I removed cover and increased the flame for about a minute to quickly reduce the liquid. I worried this would overlook the shrimp, but at all a problem. The flavors concentrated, and the final dish was savory and wonderful. A dish for 4 barely made it through supper (we are 2!)

Tofu cubed. Marinate in a little oil, lemon, and garlic. Then pan fry until browned on all sides. Toss into the scampi after the rest has cooked.

This was delicious and perfect

Very,very tasty! I plan to add this to our favorites! I agree that 2 cups of liquid was too much- I made a quick broth with the shrimp shells and garlic peels- and it was quite soupy. Next time I will decrease the liquid, or actually, I will add a bit more orzo. Also, this did not make 4 portions. We got two smallish dinners plus 1 small lunch out of it.

Very good. Made it twice so far. Be generous with garlic. Orzo needs to cook longer, up to 20 minutes. Use all 2 cups liquid - it’s needed for the sauce. Don’t overcook the shrimp.

Use 1.5 cups broth

Many of you have shared such great comments that helped me piece together the best approach for this recipe. Thank you. The two things I could share are:1) the importance of a simple seafood stock I had made,…adding to the orzo less than a cup first to not make the mixture wet and then gradually adding more- kind of like cooking a risotto. 2) great call to those who recommended sauteeing the shrimp first and adding the garlic later into the risottoThis dish was wonderful!

Definitely try to make stock from the shrimp shells...

This was easy, delicious, elegant and will be a definite repeat in our rotation. Served with skilled prepared baby asparagus. Orzo needed 14 minutes and the large shrimp we used needed 6 minutes. Wonderful!

This also works fabulously with langostino tails!

Was I supposed to turn the heat up when I added the shrimp? They took forever.

Question: When adding the shrimp, should I also add the marinade they were in ?

Great recipe. I added basil in place of parsley and a little parmigian. Huge hit and new go-to for quick easy meal. Also can work with frozen cooked shrimp

Cook shrimp first but not fully to avoid garlic taste, also make shrimp stock with the shells

ArugulaCherry tomatoes

Excellent result and very easy!

I started with water then tasted the orzo while cooking and it was pretty meh. Added some Better than Bouillon and threw in a handful of frozen peas and was very happy with the result.