Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Arugula Lemon Pesto Recipe
Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Basil Arugula Pesto sounds like a fancy dinner, but it's actually a quick and easy meal.
If you're using frozen shrimp for this recipe, remember to put the shrimp in the refrigerator the night before to defrost. If absolutely necessary, you can defrost shrimp using a faster method by placing a bag of frozen shrimp in a large bowl of cold water for about 20 minutes.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: pasta
- Method: boil and saute
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
Arugula Walnut Pesto
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 cup walnut halves and pieces
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (or Grana Padano)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 to 2 cups (or 1 to 2 small handfuls) arugula
- 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
- Zest from a small lemon (use a microplane grater to zest the lemon)
- Salt, to taste
Garlic Shrimp Pasta
- 3/4 pound/12 ounces linguine (or your favorite pasta)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, patted dry with a paper towel
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.
- In a food processor, blend the garlic, walnuts, cheese and olive oil until the walnuts are very finely chopped and the texture of the mixture is fairly smooth.
- Add the arugula and basil. Process until the pesto is fairly smooth. If it seems too thick, add more olive oil.
- Zest the lemon over the pesto, then pulse a few times to blend the lemon zest in. Add salt to taste.
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Before draining the pasta, scoop out 1/2 cup of the pasta water and set it aside.
- In a large serving bowl, use tongs to toss the pasta with the pesto. Drizzle in a little bit of the reserved pasta water to help loosen the pesto and coat the pasta. You probably will use about 1/4 cup or so of the reserved water.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and cook only about 20 seconds.
- Add half of the shrimp. Cook for 2 minutes, shaking the pan a few times. Flip the shrimp over and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until pink.
- Transfer the shrimp to the pasta bowl, then add the remaining shrimp to the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes, shaking the pan a few times. Flip the shrimp over and cook 1 minute more, until pink. Add to the pasta.
- Toss the pasta with the shrimp.
- Add more salt and/or lemon zest to taste.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature.
Notes
Why 3/4 pound pasta? If you use a full pound of pasta, you might find that there isn't quite enough pesto and shrimp to balance out the amount of pasta.
Patting shrimp dry with a paper towel before cooking the shrimp helps the shrimp saute faster and better because there isn't as much moisture in the skillet.
You can serve the shrimp with or without tails, whatever you prefer.
