Easy dishes aren’t usually known for complex flavors, but leave it to the Barefoot Contessa to defy that with her simple baked shrimp scampi recipe.
Ina Garten’s take on this classic, summery seafood dish looks beautiful, has layers of flavors, and comes together in a few quick steps.
Admittedly, the recipe does require quite a long list of ingredients, but I was surprised at how uncomplicated it was, especially after I finished prepping the shrimp.
Most of the ingredients are just minced and mashed together, and then the whole thing is baked in an oven. No sautéeing required!
First, I gathered the ingredients.
This recipe’s ingredient list can be divided into two categories: items needed for the shrimp prep, and ingredients for the flavorful butter-panko sauce.
For the former, I chose frozen, deveined shrimp. Beyond that, I just needed to grab a few pantry staples: Kosher salt, black pepper, olive oil, and dry white wine. (I picked a pinot grigio.)
The butter-panko mixture is really the star of this dish, and has a lengthier ingredient list. For this part of the recipe, I needed unsalted butter, garlic, shallots, parsley, rosemary, lemon zest, crushed red pepper flakes, lemon juice, Kosher salt, black pepper, an extra-large egg yolk, and panko (flaky breadcrumbs).
I prepped my shrimp by peeling, butterflying, and marinating them.
The first step was peeling the shrimp, carefully ensuring their tails stayed on.
Next, I butterflied them — that is, I used my knife to cut a little deeper into the shrimp and pull the two halves gently apart.
Once the shrimp were ready, I put them in a simple marinade of pinot grigio, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Then, I left them to marinate at room temperature while I moved on to prep the butter-panko mixture.
Next, it was time to make the buttery sauce.
I minced garlic, a shallot, parsley, and rosemary, and added them to a bowl with unsalted butter.
After that, I tossed in some more ingredients: crushed red pepper, lemon juice and zest, an egg yolk, panko, salt, and black pepper. I mashed all of these together until the mixture looked colorful and crumbly.
I arranged the butterflied shrimp in an oval baking dish.
Garten’s recipe calls for a 14-inch gratin dish.
I grabbed a baking dish around this size and arranged the shrimp in ovals, with each piece placed butterflied side down and the tails pointed toward the center of the dish.
Then, I poured the remaining marinade over the layer of shrimp.
I topped the shrimp with the butter and panko sauce, then baked the whole thing.
Using my hands, I broke up the butter-panko mixture into dollop-sized pieces and placed them on top of the shrimp until I had a nice, even layer. Following the featured photo in Garten’s recipe, I made sure not to cover up the tails.
Finally, I put the whole thing in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes. Once it was finished baking, I gave the dish a final squeeze of lemon juice.
The result was a surprisingly easy, flavorful dish that I’d definitely make again.
The shrimp was a bit on the salty side for me, so I’ll try a few tweaks next time. Namely, I’ll include a touch less salt in the marinade and a bit more crushed red pepper instead.
I’d also love to try using a different dry white wine, just to see how it impacts the flavor.
The buttery panko topping, on the other hand, was my favorite part of the dish. I’m a sucker for a meal with a delicious sauce that you can easily sop up with bread, and this baked shrimp scampi definitely did the trick.
I was also surprised by the sauce’s robust blend of flavors. I knew the recipe would heavily feature butter, garlic, and lemon, so I expected that I’d mostly taste just those flavors — which would’ve been fine with me, as someone who always enjoys a garlicky, lemony dish.
However, I loved that I could taste all the other ingredients, too, from the rosemary to the red pepper flakes.
It made for an exceptionally flavorful dish: My meal was delightfully zesty, savory, and herbaceous, all at once. I’ll definitely be baking this one again this summer.
This story was originally published on November 26, 2025, and most recently updated on July 16, 2026.
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