April 29th is National Shrimp Scampi Day. That’s an amazing Italian-American dish prepared with olive oil or butter, white wine and lemon juice. Most of the time, the shrimp is served over linguine or fettuccine pasta–and our kids think it’s pretty great when we make it for them. We skip the wine, but balance that by throwing in plenty of shrimp. But now we’re going to spoil our kids more than ever by going with a Shrimp Scampi Pizza. That pretty much combines two of their favorite food groups.
It also brings together two amazing aspects of Italian-American cuisine, which we’ll explain to the kids so that Shrimp Scampi Day will be educational. That’s important. It’s just gotten too commercialized nowadays… [photo via flickr]
Ingredients
- 1 large pre-baked pizza crust
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 pound medium or large raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place olive oil and butter in a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Add shrimp and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked through. Season the shrimp with pepper and salt and remove from heat, reserving the butter mixture
- Place pizza crust on the prepared baking sheet and brush with the butter mixture. Scatter the shrimp over the pizza crust and sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake the pizza for about 10 minutes or until the top has lightly browned. Allow the pizza to stand for a few minutes before cutting into slices.
Some possible variations to this dish include barbecue shrimp with a basic spicy rub, California shrimp with fresh seasonal vegetables, and hot and spicy shrimp with asian spices. And don’t forget to make it a balanced meal by adding vegetables such as mushrooms, green peppers, eggplant or zucchini.
