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!
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Fettucine Alfredo – also see One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta
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Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
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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.
I made this last night. So delicious and easy to make. 5* all the way. Add it to your recipe bank!
I just made this, I substitute wine for more broth and added red chilli flakes. It was amazing!!!!! Definitely adding it to my books.
Absolutely beautiful, I added just a few chilli flakes and a bit of red chilli pepper to the prawns to give extra taste and used 6 gloves of smaller garlic to add body. I garnished with coriander but any chopped herbs will do. Thank you for a lovely recipe. Hopefully I will be making it again.
It’s a great recipe, so tasty, the whole family enjoyed it! I followed the recipe exactly but found that the sauce was a touch runny. I might try adding an egg yolk to thicken it. But the flavours were spot on. I also added spicy chorizo to mine.
Always a winner in our house!!! I have one non seafood eater so I brown diced chicken thighs then move into the prawns and cook according to recipe. My chicken eater enjoys his meal as much as the prawn eaters. Tonight I had a bottle of Prosecco open so I used it for the sauce and it worked just as well as my usual sav Blanc…..
Made this for the first time last night and it absolutely will not be the last!! The tip of adding the pasta water at the end totally changed the way the sauce turned out and I’m so using this tip in all my creamy sauces in the future!
Thanks Nagi!
OK, but where does the chicken broth go?
It’s in Step 6. Add cream, broth and parmessan.
In the words of my husband ” that was freakin amazing ” and I totally agree. I didn’t change or add anything else and it was bloody beautiful
I freaking love this recipe, I keep going back to this whenever I’m craving a good plate of creamy pasta. It’s so easy to make and it takes less than 30 minutes! Everything goes so well together. Coconut cream can also be used!! Yummy!
This is getting put into my collection of beloved ‘keeper’ recipes. It was just delicious! I forgot to save the pasta water (doh!) but the sauce thickened up enough when I added the pasta. No white wine so I used sherry – a wee touch of sweetness. Added a little lemon juice to offset that. Yum yum yum. Thank you for a great recipe!
Really quick and easy, added calamari as we had it. Absolutely yummy!
Another great recipe! I tweaked it a little by adding lemon zest and juice of half a lemon. I also added baby spinach. Also increased the liquids and cheese by half, and used 1lb of pasta.
Another excellent recipe. I took note of a few other reviewers and added lemon zest and a touch of fresh chilli (when cooking the prawns) and it took it to the next level.
Great recipe
This was probably the best pasta dish I ever cooked! It will definitely be a regular on the menu here, thanks so much Nagi 😊
Ridiculously good! The whole family reckon this is better then anything we’ve ever bought at a restaurant. Did up the garlic to 5 tsp (thank goodness none of us has to go to the office tomorrow, but yummm), used egg pasta and real stock (nagi you’ve convinced me forever to use real stock!). Awesome dish 🙏
My husband made this to use up some leftover crab meat and prawns on Boxing Day. It was delicious – not too heavy but indulgent, and we added some finely grated zucchini. My 6 and 8 year old sons loved it too and that alone means it will be made again and again. Thank you Nagi
This was sooooo gooood. I would recommend adding the zest of one lemon (I did 1/12 times the recipe ingredients and this addition made it next level).
I’m guilty of tagging too many recipes based on ingredients or cuisine, etc which sometimes leaves me spoilt for choice when deciding what to cook. But when pressed, I’ll opt for those sites I can really on for a great result. And I come back to recipetineats time and time again! This was another winner. Thank you, Nagi!
I have your cookbook! The first recipe I made was your Restaurant-Worthy Easy Prawn Linguine. I had bought some lovely frozen Queensland tiger prawns in shell, so was exploring how best to use them. The recipe took me out of my comfort zone as I had to deal with the messy business of shelling the prawns. At one point the tomalley (roe) which looks a disgusting runny brown squirted out and hit me in the face! But I knew it is the essence of flavour and soldiered on… It took me 3 times longer than you to complete the recipe as I approached with trepidation. I had no anchovies, but the stock didn’t suffer. I didn’t have linguine, but I did have tubular spaghetti which I swear gathers up flavour with every slurp. The recipe is brilliant! I have left-over prawn stock, which I hope to use in this lovely, creamy pasta dish!