Cajun Shrimp Pasta

We’re so excited about our recipe for Cajun Shrimp Pasta! It combines two of our favorite things, shrimp and pasta! The cajun seasoning and cream sauce are an added bonus and takes this dish from delicious to extraordinary.

This recipe is also so simple to make and can we highly recommend tripling the cajun seasoning blend and saving some for whenever you want to add a burst of flavor to your dish. It goes well with shrimp, chicken, fish, veggies, so many things!

How to Make Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Ingredients

Process

1. Place all Cajun spice mix ingredients into a small mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together.

3. In another mixing bowl combine shrimp, oil and half of the spice mix.
4. Toss together until shrimp is evenly coated. Allow mixture to sit for 15 minutes.

5. Fill a large pot with water, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Add a small handful of salt and add linguine. Cook linguine, stirring occasionally until al dente, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.
6. Place a large skillet over medium heat and melt 1 1/2 tablespoon butter. Add half the shrimp and sear on each side for about 3 minutes or until shrimp just turns opaque and barely cooks through. Transfer shrimp to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining shrimp.

7. Return skillet to stove and melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add onion and bell peppers and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle vegetables with remaining spice mix and continue to sauté for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Deglaze skillet with pasta water and simmer until water evaporates and vegetables have softened. Transfer vegetables to plate with shrimp.
8. Return skillet to stove and melt remaining butter. Pour cream into skillet and simmer until cream has reduced by 1/3, about 4 minutes.

9. Pour hot sauce and grated Parmesan into reduced cream.
10. Stir together until sauce thickens enough to coat a wooden spoon.

11. Add pasta to sauce and toss together.
12. Add shrimp, vegetables and cilantro to skillet and continue to toss together until everything is evenly coated in sauce. Season with salt and pepper and toss together.

13. Top shrimp pasta with sliced green onion and serve.

Tools You Will Need

• cutting board
• knife
• mixing bowls
• measuring spoons
• liquid measuring cup
• wooden spoon
• tongs
• large sauté pan

Variations for Shrimp Pasta

• Although it’s a cajun shrimp pasta recipe we love subbing in scallops, chicken or even mushrooms for the shrimp from time to time, just to mix things up.
• The bell peppers can be swapped out for thinly sliced poblano peppers, which still have a mild and bright flavor, but add just a little more heat and have a little more of an earthy flavor.
• Spinach or kales leaves can be stirred into the cream sauce to bulk it up and to add some greens into the sauce.
• We love using linguine for this shrimp pasta recipe because it’s not to thin or thick, but you can really use whatever pasta shape and size you would like!
• If you want to lighten the sauce up you can use half and half or whole milk instead of cream. If you use whole milk, the finished sauce will be thinner than if you were to use cream, but will still coat the pasta.

Prepping Our Cajun Shrimp Pasta Recipe Ahead of Time

• Slice the onions and peppers up to 3 days ahead of time and store together in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
• Thaw, peel and devein shrimp up to 1 day ahead of time and store in an airtight container. Drain any liquid that has accumulated and gently rinse shrimp before combining with cajun spice blend.
• Make cajun spice blend up to 3 months ahead of time.
• Sliced green onions and mince cilantro up to 2 days ahead of time and store separately in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Tips for Buying Shrimp

• Try to buy shrimp that is already peeled and deveined to save yourself time while preparing the shrimp pasta recipe.
• Buy shrimp from the freezer section to save some money. The shrimp in the seafood case is usually previously frozen anyway. You’ll get a better deal from the frozen food section while essentially getting the same quality shrimp.
• If you forget to thaw the shrimp in the refrigerator overnight, you can toss them into a colander and run cool water over them to quickly thaw them.

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