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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.
What I love about this recipe is that you can use the basics and create other tasty recipes just as easily. Tonight we used tomatoes & added sausage w/ cayenne for a more cajun dish. It was a hit! Thanks for the creamy recipe, I will try this next when I have half & half on hand. Super delish!
This made a pretty, slightly fancy meal for New Year's Eve. The flavor was great and overall it was relatively simple! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
How serendipitous, just found some shrimp in my freezer during a cleanout (don't ask, BIG freezer!) and was wondering what cool new thing I could do with it. Going to give this one a whirl with the GF substitution.
I just made this and it's really good. I added more salt and pepper for taste as well as a teaspoon of flour to thicken my sauce. Can't wait for my hubby to try it tonight. There wasn't any measurements for the half and half, so I put a cup in the pan.
I made this tonight and wow!! It was so yummy, even my husband liked it and he is very very picky this is definitely something I will be making again and again and again. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Why would you rinse the pasta? If you rinse the pasta, you are washing off the starch that helps the sauce stick to the noodles...you're never to rinse pasta!!!
I agree, Ashley... Never rinse pasta! Also, be careful to not overcook the shrimp. The combination of stir frying the shrimp and then later letting the shrimp simmer in the sauce could easily cause overcooking. I add the shrimp in just before the linguine .
Great recipe!
You can buy jars of alfredo sauce in any super market just cook the shrimp then the mushrooms then poor tour noodles in add the jar alfredo sauce saves you time and no lumpy cheese or water down sauce
Not the same
Agreed! This sauce is WAY better than jarred. Maybe I'm fussy, but I'm not a fan of any jarred Alfredo sauce I've tried to date.
dont rinse your pasta. The starch on the pasta helps the sauce stick to it. You only rinse it if you are going to save it, if so add a little olive oil so it doesn't stick together,
I made this tonight. I seasoned to taste and I didn't put the green onions in. It is FABULOUS!!! Thanks for the recipe!
My picky husband loved it!!!
What is half and half? Would somebody please tell me?? I don't mean to sound stupid but I just don't have a clue what it is. Somebody help please!!!!!
It's half cream, half milk...are you not in the U.S.? I can't remember what it's called in the UK and really don't know about any nations other than this, but in the U.S. it's very popular in coffee.
I think maybe you can make the equivalent by half double cream ("heavy" cream) and half full-fat milk...?
Im in Australia, can you please clarify what half and half is equivalent to here??
Is it half a cup of cream and half a cup of water??
Thanks
Go to the dairy section in your grocery. It is in a carton. It is equal parts of 100% whole milk and cream.
The green bits are chopped freash basil. She states at the last of the recipe to add more spices and basil if desired. Half and half in america is half cream and half milk. If it isn't sold where you are you can just mix half cream with half milk to equal the amount in the recipe.
Can you substitute an other cheese for mozzarella...?
Why are y'all criticizing.?? Okay she failed to put what the "green things " was on the recipe, but she gave you the basics. It don't take a rocket science to figure out if you want to add or take away... It's at your discretion.. Great meal Julia! 🙂
I have been thinking the same thing while reading these comments. It's as if the commenters have never cooked before, or have no ability to "wing it".
Agree with you! Didn't understand why some were just criticizing Julia. This surely is a great meal
She gave us a great recipe. The green onions or whatever it is in the pic could be something she put In after the recipe was done. For her own flavor. Chill out people...
People are so damn critical. When I read recipe reviews I just want to know how other people tweaked the recipe or loved it as is. Enough with the unnecessary comments. PLEASE.