Say hello to your new favorite dinner made in just 30 short minutes. Yes it’s beautiful, delicious, simple and easy. I love a good easy dish that tastes fancier and more expensive than it actually is. Don’t you? This could be made for your family or for a dinner party. The shrimp give it a slight seafood flavor and the basil pesto packs in so much herby deliciousness. It’s truly one of my favorites and I can’t believe I haven’t shared it sooner.
I know we all love a quick dinner. Pasta typically is what I go for when I’m crunched for time. It’s a great idea to always keep dried pasta and canned pesto in your pantry. Those are one of the many pantry staples that I always keep on hand. This dinner is mostly made with pantry ingredients and things like lemon, white wine, cream, parm and garlic… which are things I typically always have on hand anyways.
You by all means can use a homemade pesto for this dish. Basil pesto, sun dried tomato pesto or whatever your favorite pesto is… all of these options work great. I use a canned pesto cut down on the cooking time. Try my recipe for basil pesto below if you prefer to make your own!
SPINACH AND BASIL WALNUT PESTO
Another thing to save time? Buy your shrimp already deveined and shelled. This will save you a good 15 minutes!
BASIL PESTO SHRIMP LINGUINI
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4-6
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb good quality linguini pasta
- 1.5 lbs medium sized shrimp, deveined and peeled
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter, salted
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 lemon, zest and juice of 1/2
- 1/2 cup white wine ( I like Chardonnay)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp basil pesto (store-bought)
- Pinch of kosher salt, more or less to taste
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, lightly chopped
- 1 cup reserved pasta water
DIRECTIONS:
- Cook pasta till al dente in salted water. Drain but do not rinse. Reserve one cup of pasta water for later use.
- Heat a separate large pot to medium. Add in olive oil, butter, garlic, lemon zest and shrimp. Cook for a couple minutes a side until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Do not over cook shrimp.
- Remove the shrimp from the pot and set aside.
- Add in wine and reduce by half. This will only take a couple of minutes.
- Once reduced, add in cream, juice of 1/2 a lemon, basil pesto and Parmesan cheese. Bring to a soft boil until the cheese is melted and the sauce is slightly thickened.
- Turn heat down to low and add in salt, red pepper flakes and parsley.
- Add back in the shrimp and the cooked pasta. Mix around till the pasta is coated.
- Add in a little bit of the reserved pasta water at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. I used about 1/2 cup.