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Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Mushrooms in a homemade alfredo sauce. The creamy pasta sauce is made with Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese, garlic, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, paprika.
One of the bests ways to cook and eat shrimp is in a luscious creamy sauce with pasta! Some of my favorites are creamy mozzarella shrimp pasta and spicy shrimp pasta with tomato cream sauce.
And, don't forget mushrooms - they go amazingly well with shrimp, as in this pesto shrimp mushroom pasta!
How to make creamy shrimp pasta
1) First, saute shrimp in olive oil, garlic, basil, and paprika.
2) Then, remove the shrimp from the skillet and in the same pan saute some mushrooms.
3) Add cooked shrimp to the skillet with mushrooms.
4) Next, make creamy shrimp pasta sauce. To the skillet with cooked shrimp and the mushrooms, add half-and-half, cheeses, more spices while the sauce simmers. Simmer the sauce, stirring, until the sauce thickens.
5) Add cooked and drained pasta to the skillet with shrimp, mushrooms, and the cream sauce. Reheat on medium heat. Stir well.
How to thicken or to thin out the cream sauce?
- To make the cream sauce thicker, add more cheese, while liquids are hot.
- To make the cream sauce thinner, add reserved warm pasta water (from cooking pasta).
Gluten-Free Friendly Recipe
I've also made this creamy shrimp pasta with gluten-free pasta (I used brown rice fettuccine) - and it was wonderfully delicious! The gluten-free pasta had the perfect texture for this kind of sauce.
Other creamy shrimp pasta recipes:
Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 8 oz fettuccine pasta (for gluten free version, use gluten free brown rice pasta)
- ½ cup cooked pasta water (optional)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb shrimp (10 big shrimp or 20 small shrimp without shells, deveined)
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 8 oz mushrooms thinly sliced
- 1 cup half and half
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- ½ cup Mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
Cook pasta
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain. Reserve some of the pasta water.
How to cook shrimp
- Heat a large skillet until hot - add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and immediately add garlic and shrimp.
- Cook on one side for about 1 minute until pink, on medium-high heat.
- Flip the shrimp to the other side. Sprinkle the top of the cooked side of shrimp with dry basil, paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, occasionally stirring, until shrimp is pink on both sides.
- Remove the shrimp from the skillet. If shrimp is a little undercooked - it's OK because you will continue cooking it in the sauce.
How to cook mushrooms
- To the same, now empty, skillet, add sliced mushrooms. Add more olive oil if necessary.
- Cook on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, occasionally stirring, until mushrooms become soft and release juices. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt midway through cooking.
How to make creamy sauce
- To the skillet with mushrooms, add cooked shrimp. Immediately add 1 cup half-and-half. Bring to boil.
- Add half the cheese (½ cup). Bring to boil, and immediately reduce to medium-simmer. Cook, constantly stirring, until the cheese melts.
- Gradually start adding the remaining cheese (½ cup), while stirring. Do not add all of the remaining ½ cup of cheese at once. Add just enough for the sauce to get creamy without getting too thick. You might not use all of the remaining cheese.
- Remove from heat. Taste, and add more salt if needed.
- Add cooked and drained pasta from step 1 to the skillet with shrimp and mushrooms and cream sauce. Reheat on medium heat. Stir well.
- If the cream sauce is too thick and you want it thinner - add some pasta water in small amounts to the cream sauce (while the sauce is simmering on low-medium heat) until you reach desired consistency.
- Season with more salt and add more crushed red pepper flakes and basil, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Oh yum. Shrimp, pasta, cream, and cheeses? I'm sold!
It looks really good. But a little misleading... you have to dirty 2 pans (one pot to cook the noodles and the pan for sauté ing)... not all in one pot as advertised.
The recipe neglects to say how much dried basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and paprika is required......
Also, the pictures don't match the recipe, as the photos clearly show either scallions or chives in the dish, but neither are not mentioned in the recipe.....
The taste was wonderful but my cheese clumped and didn't melt very well. Should I have added the cheese after the half and half came to a boil?
My cheese turned into large clumps of useless mess. The flavor was good but runny and a waist of cheese.
To ensure cheese does not clump when making any Alfredo or similar sauce is to slowly add the cheese while continously stirring. If you just dump cheese into a warm/hot sauce, it will naturally clump. Hope this helps!
Maybe should add this advice to the original recipe instead of the comment section!? Hope it still tastes ok. It just happened to us too:/ thanks.
Tried this last night and the sauce did not thicken at all. The cheese curdled and clumped onto the shrimps and mushrooms. Looked like a watery soup. A little frustrating since the flavour was good.
Not a sin to use jar alfredo sauce...
I found if you bring this sauce to a boil before its blended together , it clumps. So 1st I added 1/2 & 1/2 on lower heat while whisking, then added in cheeses, and season to taste. Not necessary to rinse pasta, just drain, you can always add a bit of olive oil to pasta and toss to keep from sticking , (*saving up to a 1/2 cup of pasta water to use for thinning sauce to your liking). After its thickened, add hot pasta to mushroom sauce. And its really a nice recipe. That's just my take on putting the sauce together ♡ Yum!
Thank you. Looks so good.
Made this last night and loved it! I did not put in the green onions and I added more mushrooms and subbed cayenne pepper for crushed red pepper flakes. I also did not have fettuccine noodles but I used regular spaghetti noodles. I will be making it again!
I agree with pbrim! It looks as though there are green onions added to this recipe? Can you clarify please.
I noticed the fresh green things, too, and they look just like minced/sliced scallions (green onions). I love the look of the green, but a little leery on adding an onion flavor to an alfredo-y cream sauce.
I agree, it looks as though there are green onions added to this recipe. Can you clarify, please?
Good grief, this looks amazing!!
I love the balance of heat and creaminess in this, Julia! Totally delicious!
Great dish! I've made something similar to this, and it really is easy, isn't it? Kind of an Alfredo sauce. Good post -- thanks.
Made this tonight for my family using Thai noodles and added about half batch of asparagus and it was so delicious and easy to make. I alead you had organic half and half on hand that I use in my coffee along with the mushrooms and asparagus. I added garlic powder and onion powder to taste as well. It fed a family of four with leftovers and I only used half the box of Thai noodles.
Thank you, Carter, for your tips! Great additions!
I have a craving fro pasta lately so this fantastic recipe is just the right timing.
Creamy, flavorful and so tempting!
Thanks for sharing this, Julia!
There seems to be something missing from the recipe. The instructions mention adding more spices at the same time as the cheese and half-and-half, and the pictures definitely show at least something fresh and green added at that point, but the recipe only mentions the cheese and half-and-half, nothing else.
I believe the recipe means more basil, salt, red pepper flakes. The "green onions" are probably a poor way of making a nice color. Ignore the green onion; I agree that it would mess with the lovely alfredo taste.
The green that you see is the dry basil
No way Jose. Fresh Italian parsley gives every photo a better look.
I made this for dinner tonight, and it was a hit! I used whole grain linguine instead of fettuccine, and fat free half and half. I seasoned pretty heavily. There are no leftovers. I will certainly make this again and again. Who cares what the green stuff is? It's just a garnish! I could see adding sun dried tomatoes for another dimension, but I'm no chef. Thank you!
So happy to hear you've been enjoying this recipe! 🙂
Do you know the nutritional values? Sodium. Fat. Protein. Calories. Very interested
Thanks.
I don't have the calorie count capability on my site yet, but there are online tools where you can cut and paste the ingredients to get the nutritional info, such as this tool: https://www.verywell.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4129594
Yep.. looks like chopped scallion
I made dish for New Year's day dinner. I saw something green in the photo as well! Upon closer examination of the photo, it looks like a fresh green Chile; not green onions. I still wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the recipe. Also, why the evasive measurements for the basil and red pepper flakes?????? I would double the sauce next time.
Something like red pepper may not be to everyone's liking so something like spices would be more to taste... "a little bit of this and a little bit of that"
measure is for taste so no specific for basil pepper flakes. I think the green is the dried basil. I am wondering how many it serves.
Only 3 of us killed this, but it was probably meant to feed 4 or 5 people. It was so good the boys didn't stop eating until it was gone!
Thank you, Jen! I am so glad your boys liked it so much they finished everything! 🙂
Looks like scallions.
Could someone tell me what half and half is?
Half and half is found in a Qt or Pint size carton in with the milk. And a bit pricey.
So creamy and flavourful! This pasta looks totally right up my alley.