Silky, creamy and soooo much flavour! One way to impress yourself and anyone you might cook for is by making this super easy and creamy garlic prawn pasta! Done in 20 minutes from start to finish and you have a mouthwatering, super delicious meal.
This is a creamy, slightly more indulgent version of the Easy Garlic Prawn Pasta recipe.
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Creamy & tasty, but healthy
When I say slightly more indulgent, yes, I'm referring to the heavy/thickened cream added to achieve its deliciously creamy sauce. Okay, so an emphasis on the 'slightly more' indulgent. For a recipe that serves 3 (or 2 very hungry people), we're only using 3 tbsp of heavy cream.
You don't need a whole lotta cream to achieve an amazing, silky and creamy sauce for this pasta. This recipe uses other healthy and great ingredients to achieve that including: extra virgin olive oil, chicken or vegetable stock, juices from the ripe cherry tomatoes and pasta cooking water (if needed).
Ingredients
- Olive oil opt for extra virgin for its great flavour
- Prawns/shrimp it's important to buy uncooked prawns as we'll be marinating them. This will get lots of flavour into the prawns and you'll be amazed at how much of a difference just 5 minutes can make!
- Fresh parsley is a MUST in my books! It completely transforms and adds freshness to this dish. Make sure to only add them in the last 30 seconds to keep them fragrant.
- Parmesan cheese I always grate my own cheese where possible. Freshly grated cheeses do not have the added anti-caking agent and so they melt really well into the pasta. No grainy texture either!
- Heavy/thickened cream is used here to achieve creaminess. Stay away from light cream.
Easy preparation
Requiring minimal prep, this is truly a tasty and perfect quick weeknight meal!
Cherry tomatoes vs regular tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes are preferred than regular tomatoes for this recipe as they're juicier, slightly more tart and are bursting with flavour. All these characteristics work perfectly with the cream, the garlic, the prawns and of course, the pasta.
Step by step instructions
Prawns cook QUICK. Overcooking will result in rubbery prawns and nobody wants that! The secret to delicious garlic prawns in this pasta dish without overcooking is by taking them out after about 2 minutes of cooking.
You might think - why not just add the prawns 2-3 minutes before the entire dish is ready!? This is all because of the power of sauteeing. Sauteeing means cooking on high heat. The prawns and garlic will start to turn colour (caramelisation/browning) when cooked on high heat. Colour = complex and delicious flavour. And the more the tastier!
Keep both eyes on the pan as everything happens quite quickly.
ps. do you like my pink pan? My sister got it for me from ALDI for $15AUD!
When it comes to prawns, I prefer buying whole prawns and then peel, devein at home. I find prawns are more flavourful that way. However, it is wayyyy easier and convenient to just buy peeled, deveined prawns.
How to peel and devein prawns
If you have the patience and using fresh prawns, this is how you do it:
- Lightly twist off the head. If they're super fresh, the vein may come out too.
- Peel the shells and legs off the prawns. I always start from the legs and most of the times the shells come off together.
- Carefully, make an incision along the back of the prawn with a small knife. The safest way is by laying the prawn down on its side and cut the incision.
- Scrape off the vein with the tip of your knife.
Are prawn veins safe to eat?
Although the veins (which really is just prawn poop) are safe to eat, they're just a little gritty texture-wise. I would make the effort of deveining prawns if they're large in size (as the veins are larger too!). If the prawns are small/medium-sized and looking fairly clean, I don't bother. It's up to individual preferences really.
Look at how silky this creamy prawn pasta is! YUM. I'm salivating as I type this.
More creamy pasta dishes
- Creamy chicken and mushroom pasta
- Creamy mushroom pasta (no cream) - healthier version!
- Healthy-ish chicken and broccoli pasta
Complete this super easy and yum creamy garlic prawn pasta with an easy, fuss-free starter Puff Pastry 'Pizza'.
Let me know what you think and/or if you have any questions, thoughts, drop me a note in the comments section below and I'll get back to you. 🙂
Happy cooking!
Gen
📖 Recipe
Creamy garlic prawn pasta
Ingredients
- 200 g /7oz dried spaghetti fettuccine or linguine works great too
- 200 g /7oz peeled, deveined prawns/shrimp (note 1)
- 3 tbsp heavy/thickened cream (note 2)
- 3 cloves garlic large, minced
- ½ cup chicken or vegetable stock or dry white wine (note 3)
- 250 g /9oz cherry tomatoes halved
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
To serve
- fresh parsley finely sliced
- freshly grated parmesan cheese (note 4)
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to packet instructions, to al dente and reserve ¼ cup of pasta cooking water. (note 5)
- Whilst pasta is cooking, marinate the prawns by adding ⅓ of minced garlic, 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper to the prawns. Mix thoroughly and set aside for 3 - 5 minutes.
- In a large, non-stick pan or skillet, add remaining olive oil and garlic and cook on medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes or until garlic fragrant.
- Add marinated prawns into the pan and turn the heat up to medium-high. Turn the prawns over after 1 minute with a pair of tongs. Cook the other side for another minute.
- Add cherry tomatoes into the pan and mix for 1 minute. Remove the prawns from the pan and set aside.
- Pour stock (or white wine if using) into the pan and reduce by half. Keep the heat on high.
- Pour heavy/thickened cream in and immediately reduce heat down to low and bring to a simmer.
- Add prawns back into the pan together with cooked pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly. Add a little pasta cooking water if needed. (note 5)
- To serve, sprinkle parsley and lots of parmesan cheese!
Notes
- Lightly twist off the head. If they're super fresh, the vein may come out too.
- Peel the shells and legs off the prawns. I always start from the legs and most of the times the shells come off together.
- Carefully, make an incision along the back of the prawn with a small knife. The safest way is by laying the prawn down on its side and cut the incision.
- Scrape off the vein with the tip of your knife.
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