Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta

Some dinners feel like a treat the moment you start cooking them. This one starts with butter melting in a pan, garlic going in, and that smell — you know the one — filling the whole kitchen before you have even added the shrimp. Garlic butter shrimp pasta is my answer to the question of what to cook when I want something that tastes fancy but only takes twenty minutes, and it has never let me down.

This is my garlic butter shrimp pasta, and it is simpler than it looks. The shrimp cook in garlic butter until they are pink and just done, the pasta is tossed through the same buttery pan with a splash of lemon and a little of its own cooking water, and the whole thing is finished with fresh parsley and Parmesan. It is a dinner that tastes like a restaurant, made in one pan, in twenty minutes.

Watch: Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 15 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 400g spaghetti or linguine
• 400g large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes (optional)
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated, plus more to serve
• A big handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

1. Start with the shrimp. Pat them dry with kitchen paper — dry shrimp sear properly, and wet shrimp just steam. Season them with a good pinch of salt and pepper, and set them aside.
2. Put a large pot of salted water on for the pasta, and a wide pan on a medium heat with the olive oil and half the butter. A wide pan matters here — the shrimp need room, or they will crowd and stew instead of searing.
3. When the butter is foaming, add the shrimp in a single layer and cook for two minutes on each side, until they are pink and just curled. Do not overcook them — shrimp go rubbery in seconds, and a second too long is all it takes.
4. Lift the shrimp out and set them aside on a plate. They will finish cooking later in the sauce, so this is just a sear, not a full cook.
5. In the same pan, melt the rest of the butter and add the sliced garlic and the chilli flakes if you are using them. Cook for a minute, until the garlic smells sweet, but do not let it brown — browned garlic turns bitter, and the sauce will taste it.
6. Tip in the lemon juice and a splash of the pasta water, and stir, scraping up all the golden bits from the bottom of the pan. Those bits are flavour, and the sauce is built on them.
7. Drain the pasta — cooked a minute less than the packet says — and tip it straight into the pan. Toss it through the garlic butter sauce for a minute or two, adding more pasta water until the sauce coats every strand in a glossy layer.
8. Return the shrimp to the pan, along with the lemon zest, the Parmesan and most of the parsley. Toss everything together for a minute more, just until the shrimp are warmed through, and serve straight away, with more Parmesan and parsley on top.

Serving and Storage

Serve this pasta the moment it is tossed together, in warm bowls, with a spoonful of Parmesan and a final squeeze of lemon — pasta waits for no one, and the shrimp are at their best when they have just come off the heat. Leftover pasta keeps in the fridge for a day, and reheats gently with a splash of water; the shrimp will not be quite as tender second time around, but it is still a good lunch.

Tips

A few things that make this pasta better. Buy the largest shrimp you can — small shrimp overcook in the blink of an eye, and big ones stay juicy. Do not skip the pasta water; it is what makes the butter sauce cling to the pasta instead of sitting at the bottom of the bowl. And cook the shrimp in a single layer, in batches if you need to — crowded shrimp steam, and steamed shrimp are nobody’s idea of a treat.

That is garlic butter shrimp pasta: ten minutes of prep, fifteen minutes of cooking, and a dinner that tastes like a restaurant on your best night out. Make it on a Friday evening, when you want something special without the fuss, and see if it becomes your end-of-the-week favourite too. It is easy to make your own as well — a handful of cherry tomatoes tossed in with the garlic softens into the sauce and adds a little sweetness, and a pinch of smoked paprika gives the butter a gentle warmth. Some nights I swap the shrimp for scallops, which need barely a minute a side, and in a pinch, a tin of good tuna stirred through the garlic butter is a perfectly respectable stand-in. The method stays the same, and the pan stays golden and fragrant. If you try it, tell us on our Contact page — we love hearing what home cooks do with the recipes here.