Garlic Butter Shrimp Linguine

This is a really quick prep meal.  There’s not a lot of chopping involved, and the sauce comes together while the linguine is cooking.  You can use either boxed or fresh pasta, it’s totally up to you.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 package linguine, either fresh or boxed
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 20-30 large, peeled, raw shrimp, thawed
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (or 1 Tbsp dried parsley)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 x 14-oz cans of petite diced tomatoes with olive oil and garlic
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach and/or arugula
• 6 fresh basil leaves, cut into fine ribbons
• Red pepper flakes
• Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Set a large pot of water on to boil. When boiling, cook linguine according to package directions.
2. In the meantime, over medium-high heat, melt butter into olive oil in a large skillet, until butter is a little foamy.  Add in garlic, and cook for about a minute. Add shrimp to the pan, spreading them out so they are lying flat.  Cook the shrimp for 1 minute on each side, then add in the parsley, making sure it gets well mixed in.  Cook for about another minute or until the shrimp starts to turn pink.  Remove shrimp from the pan and keep it aside for later. (Remember the shrimp will continue to cook a bit after you remove it from the pan,  so you don’t want to overcook it here.)
3. In the same skillet, add the onions and saute until translucent.
4. Add the 2 cans of diced tomatoes, and stir into onions.  At this point your pasta is probably almost cooked, so add in 1 soup ladle of your starchy pasta water.  Stir sauce well. Add in your spinach/arugula and fresh basil and cook until wilted but still bright green. Turn heat to low.  Add the shrimp back to the sauce and stir to coat it.
5. When pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the sauce and, using a pair of tongs, mix it with the sauce until it is well coated. Serve it up with red chill flakes and Parmesan cheese as a garnish. Serves 4

Tips

• If you’re using boxed, dry pasta, you should probably wait until you’ve dropped the pasta into the water to start the sauce because it takes that much longer to cook than fresh pasta. You can do your mise en place for the sauce while your water is coming to a boil.
• I did not use salt and pepper to taste in this recipe because the canned petite diced tomatoes with olive oil and garlic already have salt and pepper added. If you feel you need to add more for it to suit your tastes, please season as necessary.
• This recipe is planned so there are 5-6 large shrimp in each serving.  You can always adjust this number to suit your needs.  Or, if you want to make it vegetarian, leave the shrimp out altogether.  This is a delicious, quick light sauce in it’s own right.
• Because not everyone in our family likes spicy food, I leave the red pepper flakes out and have then as a garnish, but if it were up to me, they would be added into the pan along with the onions so they could release their oils and become that much more pungent.
• Adding in a ladle of the starchy pasta water makes the sauce stick to the noodles better, so don’t skip this step.  This is not an extremely saucy dish, so having that extra liquid really helps make sure the pasta gets properly coated.

If you give this recipe a try please share your results and post a picture in the comments section.  And let us know if you made it as-is, or if you made any modifications to suit your family’s needs and tastes.