Many are ordering online or going out to do some holiday shopping when time permits. The busy work days and all of the pre-holiday shopping and busy weekends can be overwhelming.

When you add in the time to enjoy visiting, cleaning and even getting a bit of rest time makes for little time to prep or cook.

Why not plan this easy meal ahead of time? Adding some shrimp, butter and fresh garlic, the pasta becomes a wonderfully-flavored dish, an easy shrimp scampi.

With pantry and store ingredients if necessary, scampi is a nice change of pace during the week or on the weekend. If you are having last-minute guests or simply cooking for a larger family, this recipe can easily be doubled.

Shrimp Scampi

1 pound of linguine

1½ pounds of raw shrimp (tail on and deveined)

6 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter

½ cup of white wine

The juice of one lemon

The zest of one lemon

½ cup of dry white wine

¼ cup of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped for garnish plus a little extra chopped parsley to mix into the entire dish (extra is optional)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, grated (not bulbs)

Salt and black pepper, to taste

¼ teaspoon chili flakes, optional

Cook your pasta to al dente (one minute or so less than the directions). Drain the cooked pasta and retain ½ cup of the pasta water.

In a large skillet, add your olive oil and heat on medium high. Gently place in your shrimp into the heated skillet and almost fully cook the shrimp. Cooking the shrimp to this point will take approximately three minutes. Season with salt and pepper, but not too much at this time. Remove the shrimp and set aside.

Turn the heat down to low. Add the grated garlic and chili flakes and saute until you can smell the garlic. Pour in the wine, lemon juice and reduce by half. While your heat is still on low, add your cold butter in one tablespoon at a time, while constantly whisking. Once all the butter is added in and melted, turn the heat off. Next, introduce your shrimp back into the skillet. Cover the pan and allow your shrimp to finish cooking in the leftover heat.

Put the pasta in the skillet. Pour in your reserved pasta water. Mix gently and garnish with the chopped parsley. If you wish, you can chop a little bit more parsley and mix that into your pasta for a little extra color.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts (www.escoffier.edu). She is currently working as a Sous-Chef and pastry chef at Ateira’s on First and has her own blog simplysarah.online. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.