This Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta is for all those nights when nothing but a creamy pasta will do! This pasta version of Creamy Garlic Prawns features pasta smothered in a creamy sauce infused with garlic flavour, and tossed through with plump prawns (shrimp). It’s indulgent but not ridiculously rich. Every pasta lovers’ dream come true!
Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta
The weekend is here and we deserve a treat!!! Rather than heading out for dinner, I think you should make THIS luscious Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta at home. 🙂
Yes it’s indulgent, but let me assure you, it’s a whole lot healthier than eating out. Because let’s face it – restaurant food is so good because it’s loaded with butter, oil and salt. I once went in search for a famous Mashed Potato recipe by Guillaume Brahimi, a renowned French Chef here in Australia, after having it at his restaurant. It’s made with 200g / 1 3/4 sticks butter for 600g / 1.2 lb of potato. THAT’S INSANE!!!!! I felt my arteries clogging up just reading the recipe!!!
So. This is rich but not crazy rich, you’ll certainly satisfy your creamy pasta craving but you won’t feel ill afterwards. 🙂 (Unless you have more than your fair share, which I cannot be held responsible for)
You don’t need gallons of cream for a great creamy pasta
This recipe serves 4 and is made with 1 cup of cream, which is 1/4 cups per serving. Which I think is actually a very reasonable amount for a cream pasta.
The sauce is thickened using a combination of freshly grated parmesan cheese and by emulsifying the sauce. If you’ve tried any of my other pasta recipes (like Bolognese, Shredded Beef Ragu, Tomato Prawn Pasta), you’d know that I (along with the entire nation of Italy) religiously do this mandatory step of tossing the pasta in the sauce on the stove with a splash of pasta cooking water. This makes the starch and fat in the sauce work its magic to thicken the sauce and makes it sticky so it clings to the pasta rather than sitting in a pool in the bottom of the skillet.
There’s no exception with creamy pastas. In fact, it’s most effective with creamy pastas because that’s how to thicken the sauce without using more and more cream.
Creamy pastas are so hard to shoot so you can see the creamy sauce coating the pasta. But do you see how there is no / little sauce pooled on the plate? That’s because it’s all on the pasta and prawns!
Best prawns for Creamy Prawn Pasta
I like making Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta with small to medium prawns. (That’s shrimp, to those of you on the other side of the pond. 🙂 ) I find it easier to eat rather than jumbo sized prawns. And because of this, I usually use (gasp, shock horror!) frozen peeled raw prawns.
I actually peeled fresh prawns when I made this the other day, pictured in the black skillet at the top of the post, and left the tail on. Which, for some reason, felt like I was making a point that the prawns are fresh ones I peeled myself, but in hindsight was completely impractical because it was such a pain to stop eating and pull the tail out of my mouth.
#FirstWorldProblems
Yes, peeling your own fresh prawns is better than using frozen. But because they are small, it is a pain so using frozen is completely acceptable – in my books. 🙂
After a non cream-based prawn pasta?
Try this Spicy Chilli Prawn Pasta with a tomato based sauce, or this Lemon Prawn Pasta.
If you’ve had a long week, I’m betting you are busting to get on that couch and flick on the TV to watch something that doesn’t require too much brain power. To complete that picture, all you need is a cozy bowl of homemade deliciousness and a glass of your favourite wine.
And in this vision I have, the cosy bowl of deliciousness is in the form of this Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta. Get the water boiling, and you’ll be slurping this down in 20 minutes. (Wait a sec – that’s faster than take out!)
Happy weekend! – Nagi xx
PS One day, try the foil packet prawn and potato version of this recipe. Creamy garlic prawns + cheesy potatoes in a foil pack!
More prawn (shrimp) pastas & risottos
And more ways to get your creamy pasta fix!
Fettucine Alfredo – also see One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
Browse all pasta recipes
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz / 250g fettuccine , or other long strand pasta of choice
- 30 g / 2 tbsp butter , separated
- 300 g / 10 oz small peeled prawns / shrimp, raw (Note 1)
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/4 cup / 65 ml dry white wine (Note 2 for sub)
- 1 cup / 250 ml heavy / thickened cream (Note 3)
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml chicken broth (or fish or vegetable broth), preferably low sodium
- 3/4 cup / 50 g finely grated parmesan cheese (1.5 oz) (freshly grated) (Note 4)
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- Black pepper
- Parmesan , for serving
Instructions
- Bring to boil a large pot of water. Add pasta and cook per packet MINUS 1 minute. (Note 5).
- Just before draining, scoop out 1 cup of pasta cooking water and set aside. Drain pasta.
- Meanwhile, melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large non stick skillet over medium high heat. Add prawns and cook for 1 1/2 minutes on each side until just cooked through. Remove prawns.
- In the same skillet, add 1 tbsp butter. Once melted, add garlic. Stir for 20 seconds until fragrant.
- Add wine and stir. Simmer for 2 minutes until wine mostly reduces (see video).
- Add cream, broth and parmesan. Stir until the parmesan is melted, then leave to simmer for 1 1/2 minutes until it thickens slightly (will thicken more in next step).
- Add prawns, stir, then add pasta plus about 1/4 cup of reserved pasta water. Toss pasta (still on stove) and the sauce will thicken in about 30 – 45 seconds and start clinging to the pasta.
- Take it off the stove before the sauce is as thick as you want – it will thicken more.
- Sprinkle with most of the parsley and black pepper, check salt (I don’t need more). Toss again until the sauce consistency is to your taste. Add a tiny splash of pasta water if it gets too gluggy.
- Serve immediately, garnished with remaining parsley and parmesan if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
He’s just the wrong colour.
Great recipe and tips! So easy to make and tastes great – will definitely be making this again! Added some chilli flakes for a little spice (:
Best of the best! Beats the store bought pasta any day. Thanks Nagi for yet another awesome recipe!!
I cook larger volumes because I’m time poor but love great food, when I cooked this dish, it didn’t even last past lunch the next day. It was that good we couldn’t stop eating it. So today I used this fantastic recipe as a base to do a chicken and mushroom and added a chicken marinade prior to keep it soft and moist, using a part the left over marinade to cook the mushrooms and added a little spice at this stage as well. Everything else stayed the same and it worked perfectly again. I’m now looking at a beef version. Great recipe.
Today it’s Sunday , a lazy day !
Thinking of what’s for dinner tonight hummm. I have some cooked prawns in the freezer.
So I thought of a good creamy fettuccini pasta with prawns.
I came across ‘ recipetineats ‘
I will follow your recipe and will let you know. I bet already dinner tonight will be awesome with a glass of white !
Superb ! Quick and easy with a very authentic flavour. Grana Padano cheese works very well too.
This is recipe is superb, very tasty, the sauce was really nice. Thank you.
Hi Nagi, what are the measurements if substituting wine for chicken/vegetable stock?
Hi Kassandra, you’re subbing with the same amount that you would use for the wine – so 65ml (plus the added stock as the other ingredient) so it will be 3/4 cup in total. N x
just made your creamy prawn pasta., it was delicious. i did add squeezed lemon juice and zest, which made it even more delicious. thank you so much, will deffo be doing this regularly xxx
Great to hear, Diane! – Nxx
hi – cooked this for supper for two – delicious and easy to follow recipe – thank you
By far the best I’ve ever made!
Thanks so much Donovan!!! N x
This is fabulous! Added a wee bit of finely chopped shallots just before the wine. Used spaghetti (why not?) It’s going in my vault! Thank you!
Simply delicious, quick and easy and reminded me of my time in Italy. Will make again. Heaven
Fantastic. I stuck pretty rigidly to the recipe although I used large frozen wild Atlantic prawns. Will definitely make this one again.
This was just an amazing recipe, Highly recommend it, Thank you.
Totally delicious! I used smoked salmon, button mushrooms and cherry tomatoes instead of prawns though. Will definitely be making this again!
Delish!
Made it yesterday and it turned out so good that I’m going to cook it again today.
I added a little bit of tomato paste and some dill – perfect.
I must have done something wrong. Got a congealed Parmesan like rubber leaving the sauce less flavorful wo the cheese. I used freshly grated primo taglio Parmesan but was out of its vacuum pack ( needed some for another recipe) . Guess it doesn’t work for sauces?
Hi Krish, I can only put it down to the fact that it was pre-grated. A lot of these pre-grated cheeses have additives to stop of clumping. N x
Wow! This is a keeper! Tastes just like it came from our favourite Italian restaraunt. Changed absolutely nothing in the recipe.
I actually used salmon which I did in my air fryer 200c 10 mins flaked it and added it in place of the cooked prawns turned out brilliant
Absolutely superb. Great flavour and easy & quick. Thank you so much Nagi!
Delicious. Cooked this as a mains dish following some Moreton Bay Bugs for entree. Worked perfectly, didn’t change a thing. Great, simple, tasty recipe that was a hit with my friends. Thank you.