Recipe – Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi with Pasta

Hello Folks! John asked me this past weekend if we were ever going to use our kitchen again. We haven’t used our stove or oven since the glorious Instant Pot came in to our lives, and I am totally OK with that (apparently he isn’t, since we have nice cookware just sitting in the cupboards. LOL).

I am still totally obsessed with the Instant Pot and have been researching and trying new recipes, while also sticking to a few of our favorites. One of those favorites is shrimp scampi. It’s unbelievably quick and easy to make and has our entire family (including baby Rosslyn) smacking our lips with delight.

While sifting through the endless stream of recipes online, I was disappointed that most of them didn’t include pasta. I don’t know about you, but I can’t have shrimp scampi without pasta! Now, pasta is a very easy thing to make in the IP, but I didn’t just want plain noodles – I wanted delicious, garlicky and buttery noodles tossed with my shrimp. So the 2nd time I made this recipe, I took a risk and threw pasta in at the end – to say it was a hit would be an understatement of how happy we all were with the meal.

Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi with Pasta

Cook Time: 5 minutes (approximately) Total Time: 5 minutes (approximate and not including time it takes for IP to come to pressure)

Ingredients

• 1lb peeled, deveined, RAW and frozen large shrimp (tails off or on is your preference)
• 2 tbsp (1/4 stick) salted butter
• 2 shallots, diced (if you don’t have shallots you can substitute regular onion – 1 small onion is equal to 3 shallots. If using onion, dice them extra small)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (we love garlic and I usually do 3 heaping tbsps)
• 1/4 cup dry white wine (like chardonnay)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 8 ozs angel hair pasta

Instructions

1. Plug in your Instant Pot and turn on the saute function. Adjust it to the “more” setting and set the time (by using the +/- buttons) to 10 minutes, at least (just so you don’t run out of time). Slice the butter and add to the pot, cook until melted.
2. Add the shallots and cook for about 2 minutes, until they are starting to lightly brown. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Add your wine to the pot to de-glaze the bottom, cooking for about a minute to burn off the alcohol.
4. Add the frozen shrimp, cover with the chicken broth and lemon juice and then sprinkle with salt + pepper. Stir to coat the shrimp.
5. Secure the lid and press the “pressure cook” button on the front of the IP. To adjust the pressure level to HIGH, press the “pressure level” button in the middle section until the screen shows HIGH. Use the +/- buttons to adjust the cooking time to 1 minute.
6. Once the cooking cycle is complete, do a quick release of its pressure (be careful of the super hot steam!), by adjusting the release valve from “sealing” to “venting” until the metal pin drops, allowing you to open the lid. (pro tip: the serving utensils that came with your IP have a special hole on the handle that is perfect for opening the steam valve!)
7. As the size of shrimp can vary, if it seems like your shrimp are not fully cooked, at this point you can turn on the saute function and cook them for a short time longer. Once you are satisfied with their doneness, place them in a large bowl, cover with foil and keep warm. DO NOT remove the juice/sauce – we are going to use them to cook our pasta!
8. Break angel hair pasta in half so it fits flat into the pot. The most important thing when cooking pasta in the IP is to ensure that it is covered by liquid. If the remaining juices from the shrimp are not enough to cover your pasta, add more chicken broth as needed (I usually start with 1 cup and go from there).
9. Secure the lid back onto the IP and ensure that your pressure valve is on “sealing.” Hit the “pressure cook” button (High pressure) and manually adjust the timer to 4 minutes. The rule of thumb with pasta in the IP is to cook it for approximately half of the time stated ont the box.
10. Once this cycle is complete, do another quick release of the pressure and remove the lid when safe. If your pasta is not done to your liking, you can do another minute or 2 on high pressure. Toss the shrimp into the pasta and stir everything up. I also like to throw in 1 tbsp of dried parsley for some added color. Enjoy!

We like to serve this with some crusty french bread and the remaining white wine. If you only have fresh or precooked frozen shrimp, you’ll need to adjust the cooking time on the IP to 0 minutes (yes, you read that correctly). Precooked and fresh shrimp take less time to cook and you don’t want them overdone. We used frozen, precooked shrimp the first time I made this and the shrimp were a bit tough (even cooking on 0 minutes), so I highly suggest using frozen raw shrimp. An amazing thing about the IP is that you can put frozen things in there and not have to adjust the cooking time at all – it just takes the pot some extra time to come to pressure while it basically defrosts your frozen items.

I’ve found that the IP is really forgiving, so if you want to adjust the liquid to be all broth or include more wine, I think it would still be delicious.

Thanks for checking out my recipe – I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!