Juicy garlic butter shrimp and pasta is the combination your weeknight dinner needs! This is a quick and easy pasta dish that you can throw together with fresh or frozen shrimp, ripe tomatoes, herbs, and penne in less than 30 minutes.
My favorite homemade garlic butter sauce tastes amazing on everything from shrimp to garlic butter chicken and steak bites. Just wait until you’ve tossed it with your favorite pasta!
My garlic butter shrimp pasta recipe has tender, juicy shrimp cooked in a savory sauce with herbs, garlic (of course), and plenty of butter. Toss in fresh cherry tomatoes and spinach, and it’s ready to serve!
Garlic butter shrimp pasta always reminds me of girls’ dinners at Olive Garden. Whenever I’m feeling nostalgic for all-you-can-eat breadsticks, I bring that restaurant experience home with the most delicious shrimp pasta dinner. It comes together faster than you can say zuppa Toscana (another OG favorite, mind you).
Reasons to Love This Buttery Garlic Shrimp Pasta
- Dinner in 30 minutes. Or less. It doesn’t get better than that for a weeknight meal!
- Fresh yet buttery flavors. Garlic butter brings amazing flavor to anything and everything it touches, from salmon to juicy shrimp and pasta. Tender baby spinach and sweet, fresh tomatoes balance out the richness of the sauce. It’s perfect.
- (Almost) one pan. Aside from cooking the pasta separately, you put the whole meal together, shrimp, sauce, and all in one skillet.
- Adaptable. You can just as easily swap the protein in this recipe for chicken, steak, or another seafood, like scallops.
What You’ll Need to Make This Recipe
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full ingredients, amounts, and recipe details.
- Pasta – Just about any pasta will work in this recipe. I find the garlicky butter sauce clings nicely to penne, but you could also use rigatoni, cavatappi, linguine, or even filled pastas like ravioli and cheese tortellini. You can use whole wheat, regular, or gluten-free pasta.
- Butter – Since there’s quite a bit of butter in this recipe, unsalted is best, as salted butter risks the sauce being a bit too salty. If you are using salted butter, taste the dish accordingly and consider less added salt.
- Garlic – Please, please use fresh garlic in the sauce! The flavor of jarred or powdered garlic just doesn’t compare.
- Dried Parsley and Oregano – Feel free to use their fresh counterparts if you have them. Or, substitute the individual herbs with Italian seasoning if you’d like.
- Shrimp – Peeled and deveined. You can use fresh or frozen, medium or jumbo shrimp in this recipe. If you’re using frozen shrimp, thaw them completely first.
- Cherry Tomatoes – Or grape tomatoes, chopped in half. Larger tomatoes should be cut into quarters.
- Baby Spinach – Swap spinach for Swiss chard or kale if you’d like. You can use frozen greens here, too, just be sure to thaw and drain them.
- Fresh Basil – Dried basil will work, but I always try to use fresh when I can. The flavor stands out so much more! You’ll need about 3x the amount of dried basil as fresh.
Tips for the Best Shrimp Pasta
- Salt the water you use to boil the pasta. This is an easy trick for flavorful, well-seasoned pasta. Simply stir 2-3 heaping spoonfuls of kosher salt into the boiling water before you cook the pasta. To paraphrase the Italians, it should be “salty like the sea”!
- Reserve some of the pasta water. Speaking of pasta water, don’t drain your pasta before scooping out about ½ cup of the leftover pasta water and setting it aside. Adding a splash of starchy water to the sauce helps emulsify and bond the butter, making the sauce thick and silky.
- Use wild-caught shrimp. I recommend using medium to large shrimp that’s wild-caught if you can. Similar to sockeye salmon, wild-caught shrimp have a cleaner flavor than farmed shrimp. If wild-caught shrimp aren’t available, try to look for brands that are sustainably farmed.
How to Avoid Overcooking Shrimp
The exact cooking time for shrimp varies depending on size, thickness, and whether it’s been pre-cooked at all.
- Pre-cooked shrimp will already be pink. In this case, you won’t need to cook it for long, maybe a minute or so, just enough to heat it through.
- Raw, uncooked shrimp are gray in color. These need longer to cook, but the best way to tell that the shrimp is done is to watch it closely. Cooked shrimp will form into a “C” and turn an opaque, pink color.
Variations You Can Try
- Fresh lemon. Squeeze fresh lemon juice into the garlic shrimp for a version of lemon herb garlic butter shrimp.
- Substitute shrimp. If you don’t eat shellfish, replace the shrimp with chicken (like chicken scampi) or your choice of protein.
- Vegetarian. Alternatively, skip the shrimp and meat altogether for a vegetarian garlic butter pasta with tomatoes and spinach. If you’d like, add additional veggies like steamed or sautéed broccoli, bell peppers, onions, etc.
- Gluten-free. Make this recipe with gluten-free pasta. Just cook it according to the package directions.
- More add-ins. Stir in ingredients like capers, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, artichokes, or anchovies to build the flavors in the sauce.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this garlic butter shrimp and pasta with a side of dinner rolls or focaccia, and a big Caesar salad for sharing. I’d recommend a crisp, aromatic white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio, to balance the richness of the shrimp. For dessert, try these 2-ingredient Nutella brownies or a slice of peach blueberry pie.
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Boil the pasta. Cook pasta according to the instructions on the package; drain.
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Prepare the garlic butter. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, parsley, and oregano; cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute, or until fragrant.
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Cook the shrimp. Season shrimp with salt and pepper; add to the skillet and cook for 4 minutes, or until pink; remove shrimp from skillet and set aside. Cover to keep them warm.
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Sauté the veggies. Melt remaining butter in the skillet; add tomatoes, spinach, and basil, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until spinach is wilted and tomatoes begin to release their juices.
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Put it all together. Add prepared pasta to the skillet with the tomatoes and spinach. Add shrimp to the skillet; stir until everything is well combined.
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Serve. Remove from heat; garnish with red pepper flakes and grated parmesan, and serve.
Serving: 1.5cups | Calories: 429kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 315mg | Sodium: 532mg | Potassium: 503mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 5930IU | Vitamin C: 30.5mg | Calcium: 241mg | Iron: 4.4mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta
The garlic butter shrimp is very similar to preparing shrimp scampi. You’ll cook the shrimp and prepare the garlic butter sauce in the same skillet!
- Cook the pasta. Boil the penne or your choice of pasta following the directions on the package. Aim to cook your pasta al dente, meaning tender, but still slightly firm in the middle.
- Prepare the garlic butter. Meanwhile, melt half the butter in a skillet, and stir in your minced garlic cloves and dried herbs.
- Cook the shrimp. Toss peeled and deveined shrimp with salt and pepper, then add them to the skillet with the garlic butter. Cook until the shrimp turn pink and curl into a “C” shape, then immediately transfer the shrimp to a plate so they don’t overcook.
- Finish the sauce. Now, melt the remaining butter in the same skillet. Add the tomatoes, spinach, and fresh basil to the garlic butter sauce, and cook until softened.
- Put it all together. Finally, add the cooked pasta to the skillet (if you’d like, drizzle in a little pasta water) and toss that around until everything is coated. Garnish your garlic butter shrimp pasta with red chili flakes and sprinkle over freshly grated Parmesan, and enjoy!
Storage and Reheating
- Refrigerate. Store leftover shrimp pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Reheat. I prefer to warm up leftovers on the stove to avoid the shrimp overcooking and becoming rubbery. Warm the pasta over low heat, adding a splash of water or broth as needed to loosen up the sauce.
- Freeze. I don’t recommend freezing the finished pasta, but as long as the shrimp you’re using wasn’t already frozen, you can freeze the cooked garlic butter shrimp to thaw and add to the pasta later. Freeze the shrimp for up to 2 months, and thaw them in the fridge.
