Name: Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 8 oz / 250g fettuccine (, or other long strand pasta of choice); 30 g / 2 tbsp butter (, separated); 300 g / 10 oz small peeled prawns / shrimp, raw ((Note 1)); 3 garlic cloves (, minced); 1/4 cup / 65 ml dry white wine ((Note 2 for sub)); 1 cup / 250 ml heavy / thickened cream ((Note 3)); 1/2 cup / 125 ml chicken broth ((or fish or vegetable broth), preferably low sodium); 3/4 cup / 50 g finely grated parmesan cheese (1.5 oz) ((freshly grated) (Note 4)); 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley; Black pepper; Parmesan (, for serving)

This Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta is for all those nights when nothing but a creamy pasta will do! Pasta smothered in a creamy sauce infused with garlic flavour, and tossed through with plump prawns (shrimp). It’s indulgent but not ridiculously rich. Every pasta lovers’ dream come true!

Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta

The weekend is here and we deserve a treat!!! Rather than heading out for dinner, I think you should make THIS luscious Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta at home. 🙂

Yes it’s indulgent, but let me assure you, it’s a whole lot healthier than eating out. Because let’s face it – restaurant food is so good because it’s loaded with butter, oil and salt. I once went in search for a famous Mashed Potato recipe by Guillaume Brahimi, a renowned French Chef here in Australia, after having it at his restaurant. It’s made with 200g / 1 3/4 sticks butter for 600g / 1.2 lb of potato. THAT’S INSANE!!!!! I felt my arteries clogging up just reading the recipe!!!

So. This is rich but not crazy rich, you’ll certainly satisfy your creamy pasta craving but you won’t feel ill afterwards. 🙂 (Unless you have more than your fair share, which I cannot be held responsible for)

You don’t need gallons of cream for a great creamy pasta

This recipe serves 4 and is made with 1 cup of cream, which is 1/4 cups per serving. Which I think is actually a very reasonable amount for a cream pasta.

The sauce is thickened using a combination of freshly grated parmesan cheese and by emulsifying the sauce. If you’ve tried any of my other pasta recipes (like Bolognese, Shredded Beef Ragu, Tomato Prawn Pasta), you’d know that I (along with the entire nation of Italy) religiously do this mandatory step of tossing the pasta in the sauce on the stove with a splash of pasta cooking water. This makes the starch and fat in the sauce work its magic to thicken the sauce and makes it sticky so it clings to the pasta rather than sitting in a pool in the bottom of the skillet.

There’s no exception with creamy pastas. In fact, it’s most effective with creamy pastas because that’s how to thicken the sauce without using more and more cream.

Creamy pastas are so hard to shoot so you can see the creamy sauce coating the pasta. But do you see how there is no / little sauce pooled on the plate? That’s because it’s all on the pasta and prawns!

Best prawns for Creamy Prawn Pasta

I like making Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta with small to medium prawns. (That’s shrimp, to those of you on the other side of the pond. 🙂 ) I find it easier to eat rather than jumbo sized prawns. And because of this, I usually use (gasp, shock horror!) frozen peeled raw prawns.

I actually peeled fresh prawns when I made this the other day, pictured in the black skillet at the top of the post, and left the tail on. Which, for some reason, felt like I was making a point that the prawns are fresh ones I peeled myself, but in hindsight was completely impractical because it was such a pain to stop eating and pull the tail out of my mouth.

#FirstWorldProblems

Yes, peeling your own fresh prawns is better than using frozen. But because they are small, it is a pain so using frozen is completely acceptable – in my books. 🙂

After a non cream-based prawn pasta?

Try this Spicy Chilli Prawn Pasta with a tomato based sauce, or this Lemon Prawn Pasta.

If you’ve had a long week, I’m betting you are busting to get on that couch and flick on the TV to watch something that doesn’t require too much brain power. To complete that picture, all you need is a cozy bowl of homemade deliciousness and a glass of your favourite wine.

And in this vision I have, the cosy bowl of deliciousness is in the form of this Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta. Get the water boiling, and you’ll be slurping this down in 20 minutes. (Wait a sec – that’s faster than take out!)

Happy weekend! – Nagi xx

PS One day, try the foil packet prawn and potato version of this recipe. Creamy garlic prawns + cheesy potatoes in a foil pack!