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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.
Excellent Very tasty!
So glad you liked it! 🙂
Really enjoyed this recipe!
June, I am so happy to hear that!
Yummy! Shrimp was cooked perfect.I did add some pasta water. I backed off on the red pepper flakes because my husband is a wuss.Very easy and quick. I will be making this again
Valerie, so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for the comment!
It was excellent. I am a male on disability and found it easy to make. I just started cooking and hit a jackpot when I found this website.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Daryll, you are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
The recipe didn't work out for me as the sauce was watery despite the amount of cheese I added to it. It seemed like it needed a thickener to make it creamy. Putting the shrimp in earlier made it tough. I was only partially cook the shrimp (if at all ) in at the end.
Omg same thing happened to me! My kind family didnt complain and after adding Parmesan once on the plates, it helped. Very disappointing though.
Really delicious. I used Old Bay Seasoning that I bought online for about £5 for a large jar. I also used a lot more shrimps and mixed some raw and previously frozen cooked prawns and they both worked well. I’ve invited friends over now that lockdown has eased a bit and will serve this dish.
Highly recommended, straightforward to make when you have guests too and seriously yummy!
Shrimp is my favorite food so any recipe that includes it is mine to keep. This creamy sauce blends so well with the shrimp and pasta. Really easy and So Good!
Made it this evening. I added some cream cheese as well. Very good. Wish I could post a photo.
We love shrimp recipes and this one didn't disappoint. It was easy to assemble, not too many ingredients, just enough spices to make it interesting and the sautéed mushrooms make it really rich tasting. It's company worthy. I'll definitely make this again.
Can I leave the mushroom out of this recipe, and it still taste good?
Best sauce We have ever tasted hands down... Thank you for sharing
Very good. Would make it again. Only problem was that the sauce was too thick. I added pasta water but it did not thin down. Perhaps use only 1/2 the cheese?
Hell to the yeah, this recipe is bomb, girl. Add some white pepper and Italian seasoning and it’s fire! HELL YEAH
I made this tonight for Valentine's Day dinner, it was fabulous! Very easy also. Thank you so much!
I didn’t try it yet but I’m sure it’s going to taste amazing!
I made this and it was AWESOME! Thank you I was wondering tho if it can be frozen