A total winner of a Tuesday dinner. What takes the longest is the marinating of the shrimp—the rest happens in 5. How can you beat that?
It’s all right there for you in the title. Sweet shrimp is sautéed until just cooked through, and fregola (a tiny toasted pasta from Sardinia) is added to the pot to toast in the melted anchovy butter and spices with some cherry tomatoes. I love Calabrian chiles packed in oil and use them here for some punchy heat, but if red pepper flakes are within closer reach feel free to use them instead. Once the fregola finishes cooking, return the shrimp to the pot to warm them through and serve straight from the pan. Serve with many bottles of chilled red wine.
Once, while traveling along the north shore of Oahu, The Splendid Table team stopped for lunch at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck for an island favorite, shrimp scampi--the most garlicky, luscious scampi we’d eaten. This is our divination of the recipe.
These are wonderfully messy shrimp that were meant to be eaten with fingers, chopsticks or forks. Since this stir fry is so good cold on a salad of mixed greens, I've provided for leftovers in the recipe.