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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, heavy cream, and spices:
Add the Parmesan cheese to melt it in the sauce, then add cooked pasta and mix everything in:
Adjust spices by adding more of basil, crushed red pepper, and salt:
Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 oz fettuccine pasta (use gluten free brown rice fettuccine for gluten free version)
- 1 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
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup half-and-half or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese freshly shredded
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain (reserving some pasta water).
- 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 heavy cream, basil, and crushed red pepper to the skillet with shrimp, bring to a stable simmer, and make sure the sauce is hot. Whisk in half of the Parmesan cheese (½ cup) gradually into the hot cream, then stir on the lowest heat setting until the cheese melts. If the sauce gets too thick, add ¼ cup of half-and-half to thin it out. Add more Parmesan to the sauce if it's too thin. You don't have to use the whole 1 cup of Parmesan - it depends on how thick you want your sauce. Use half-and-half to thin it out if it gets too thick.
- Remove the sauce from heat. Add more salt, basil, and more crushed red pepper if desired, to taste.
- 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.
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.
Made this for dinner tonight and its was very delicious! next time I would definitely add some veggies to this and add less half and half.
Hey! I want to make this tonight as it looks so good!! But I have a question and excuse me if this sounds like a silly question, but for the shrimp do you use fresh shrimp or pre cooked shrimp? Thanks for the help!!
I have the same shrimp question! Cooked or uncooked, frozen or fresh?!
Use unfrozen uncooked shrimp. If you have to, you can use unfrozen cooked shrimp - it will work here too.
It was delicious. I would add only half a cup of parm cheese next time. It's load with flavour.
Thank you for the easy meal it was delicious!!!
Did you use frozen shrimp with the tail still on ? That's all I'm finding in my area.
I LOVEDDDDDDDDD the recipe.... It was so delicious and my entire family wanted 2nds!!!!! Thanks Julia for sharing
This was wonderful. I substituted Spaghetti Squash for the pasta as we are trying to watch carbs. Definitely will make again.
Made this for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious!! So nice to have a recipe that I didn't feel needed tweaking at all. I followed this one exactly and it's the perfect mix of garlic, spices and creaminess. Thanks for a wonderful (and easy!) dinner!
Well I must say that after making this my family has given it the stamp of approval. This dish was "AMAZING" and well worth the work, I followed most of it to the T...but yes being from Jamaica i added my own twist... Thank you for sharing your love for food!
This sounds delicious but the photo shows green onions instead of basil. That's really sloppy.
Just made this. I wanted to wait to try it with my hubby, but I couldn't wait. I love shrimp. I love cheese. It is delicious!
I'll be honest, we did not go on point to the exact recipe. We didn't have fettuccine so used linguine. We could have used sun dried tomatoes, but I noticed our grape tomatoes were looking a like they could wilt so my husband sauteed them instead. I also tossed in some seasoned chicken from a salad I had not finished the day before so we cut the shrimp back and added that. My husband and I use spices without measuring. I think we added extra paprika. The sauce was great and since it's just us two, we did reduce the portions. All in all, a great mid-week meal!
Thank you, Kristin, I am glad you liked the recipe! Fresh tomatoes always taste great with creamy pasta!
I did this with chicken and it was excellant!
I bet it was great with chicken! 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight. Like a previous commenter said, my cheese did not blend into the sauce at all, it was just very clumpy. It was freshly shredded. Despite that, this was a super yummy dinner that I will definitely try making again.
If you get clumps in the sauce, make sure to bring the sauce to boil and keep stirring until the cheese melts into a creamy sauce. Add more liquid if needed. If you cook and stir the sauce while boiling long enough (even with the pasta in it) - all the cheese will melt.
Made this for dinner last night it was awesome! I used large deveined shrimp with the tails on, used heavy whip cream instead of half n half and I added sautéed mushrooms after adding the heavy whip cream. My husbands comments were " I think this is the best dish you've ever made, I think we should have this every week!"
Thanks for the great recipe!!
Thank you, I am glad you liked it! 🙂