Thursday, September 10, 2026 Sous Vide Scampi Rao’s    

  

    Martin was thinking about how to make one of our favorite shrimp dishes, Scampi Rao’s, more reliable. It is astoundingly difficult to pan sauté shrimp without going too long and making them almost inedibly rubbery. Hmmm… lets check America’s Test Kitchen for some ideas and there it was, Sous Vide Spanish-Style Spicy Shrimp with Olive Oil. Now combine that with the Saveur Scampi Rao’s recipe we use and we should have a good shot at a workable dish. Oddly enough, Rao’s doesn’t have the recipe on its site.

The Saveur Scampi Rao’s cooks the sauce independently of the shrimp:

STEP 3

While the pasta cooks, make the sauce: To the empty skillet, add the wine, stock, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and garlic and turn the heat to high. Cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the butter and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Turn the heat to medium, stir in the reserved shrimp, and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.

    This time we didn’t cook the sauce stovetop at all and it didn’t quite work right. The flavors didn’t meld quite right.

Starting the 140°F, 30 minute Sous Vide.

We did a bit more than a half recipe of the sauce, so there’s plenty of it for the couscous. 

The technique worked! The shrimp are absolutely perfect, better than we’d ever managed to do stovetop. Just simmer the sauce stovetop and we should have an amazing Scampi Rao’s.