Garlic Shrimp and Sun-Dried Tomatoes with Pasta in Spicy Cream Sauce – a delicious, Italian-inspired seafood pasta recipe. If you want to make something different with shrimp, try this recipe! It’s easy and you’ll love it if you like sun-dried tomatoes.
There is lots of sauce in this seafood pasta. Be careful not to overcook the shrimp (which is easy to do). But even if you do overcook the shrimp, there is so much cream sauce, you won’t even notice if the shrimp does get rubbery. That’s the beauty of this recipe. Garlic Shrimp together with Sun-Dried Tomatoes is smothered in Spicy Creamy Sauce and served over fettuccine pasta. With everything spiced up with basil and crushed red pepper. Italian-inspired comfort food that’s super easy to make!
How to make garlic shrimp pasta:
Start by cooking sun-dried tomatoes with minced garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then add shrimp, half and half, and spices:
Add cooked pasta and mix everything in:
Adjust spices by adding more of basil, crushed red pepper, and salt:
This is an Italian-inspired seafood pasta recipe with lots of flavors at play. Garlic Shrimp together with Sun-Dried Tomatoes is smothered in a lot of Spicy Creamy Sauce and served over fettuccine pasta. Everything spiced up with basil and crushed red pepper. YUM!
- 1/2 lb shrimp (Use unfrozen uncooked shrimp. If you have to, you can use unfrozen cooked shrimp - it will work here too)
- 4 oz sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup half-and-half or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese , freshly shredded
- 8 oz fettuccine pasta (use gluten free brown rice fettuccine for gluten free version)
- Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained oil for sauteing as described below:
- In a large skillet, saute minced garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) in 2 tablespoons of oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar - see note above) for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant.
- Add shrimp, sprinkle with a small amount of salt, paprika, and cook on medium heat for about 2 more minutes.
Add half-and-half, basil, and crushed red pepper to the skillet with shrimp, bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Whisk the Parmesan cheese into the hot cream and stir to melt cheese, on the lowest heat setting, until cheese is melted.
Remove the sauce from heat. Add more salt, basil, and more crushed red pepper if desired, to taste.
In the meantime, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain (reserving some pasta water).
Add cooked pasta to the creamy mixture, add more salt, basil, and more crushed red pepper if desired, to taste. If the sauce is too thick, use the reserved pasta water to thin it out.
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We make it low carb by substituting cauliflower for the noodles. Tastes amazing!
I made this tonight. It was simple, yet very flavorful. My husband loved the sauce. Will be making this again soon!
So glad to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to leave the comment!
Will this dish come out well without cheese and milk/ half and half. Trying to stay clear from dairy
If you don’t want to use cheese, milk or half-and-half and can eat coconut milk, then coconut milk would be a great substitution!
I made this tonight but the sauce came out watery and not creamy. I am not sure why? Also, Step 5, “In the mean time, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain (reserving some pasta water).” It doesn’t say what to do with the reserved pasta water? Any tips on how to make this pasta more creamy?
I made it this evening and I added just a little more shredded cheese, I used parmesan and Romano shredded cheese. Also let it sit for a few minutes to thicken up. I did not use any of the pasta water at all! I will be making this again! Hope this helps!
I am glad you liked this recipe! Thank you for sharing your comment!
To make the sauce more creamy, make sure the half-and-half or whole milk boils on low (simmers) while you add the cheese, constantly stirring.
Another option would be to use heavy cream instead of half-and-half.
Use reserved pasta water to thin out the sauce, if needed.
See Step 7
We ate this tonight! I have a large family, so we doubled the recipe and I had to substitute a jar of roasted red pepper for the sun-dried tomatoes. It was delicious! It will be a repeat and next time I will use the sun-dried tomatoes. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Katie! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂