Spaghetti with a spicy tomato sauce and shrimp. A delicious 20 minute weeknight dinner that’s fancy enough to serve on a date night. This recipe is absolutely mouth-watering, incredibly easy to make and loaded with flavor. Full of garlic, red pepper, juicy cherry tomatoes and shrimp. Pure joy.
Why you’ll love this shrimp pasta recipe
This shrimp pasta recipe has it all! It’s straightforward, easy to prepare and out of this world delicious. Everything gets tossed together in a spicy tomato sauce made with tomato paste and cherry tomatoes, packed with garlic and finished with some grated Parmesan. Yup, it’s just that simple.The shrimp help give the pasta a little depth, while the crushed red pepper flakes and sambal add just enough kick. It’s perfect!
Serve with some crusty bread and a simple side salad drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Let me guide you through the recipe with this step-by-step VIDEO.
Recipe tips
- For a hearty vegetarian version of this pasta, use mushrooms or eggplant instead of shrimp.
- You can add a variety of seafood you’d like, mussels would be great, or clams, or even chunks of white fish.
- Spaghetti is my pasta of choice here, but you can really use whatever pasta you’d like or have on hand.
- To add some flavor, you can use a splash of dry white wine.
- It’s perfectly okay to use frozen shrimp, I did, they can be thawed super fast by placing them under cold running water.
Storage
- Store leftovers refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 day.
More shrimp, please!
Spicy Tomato Shrimp Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 7 ounces spaghetti
- 10.5 ounces shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2 tsp salt divided
- 2 tsp black pepper divided
- 2 tsp sweet paprika divided
- 3 tbsp olive oil divided
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 9 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 3.5 ounces tomato paste
- 1 tsp sambal
- ½ tsp chili flakes
- 2 ounces grated parmesan more for serving
- 3 tbsp chopped parsley
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine shrimp with 1 tsp salt, black pepper and sweet paprika. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, toss and set aside.
- Boil the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling, generously salted water. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
- In the meantime, heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Place the shrimp in a single layer, sear for 1 minute. Flip and sear the other side, 1 minute. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same skillet, lower the heat and melt the butter. Add garlic and shallot, cook until fragrant for about 2 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes, cook about 3 minutes or until the tomatoes start to burst. Press on the back of the tomatoes with a fork to release their juices and stir to combine.
- Add tomato paste, red pepper flakes and the remaining salt, black pepper, sweet paprika and chili flakes. Deglaze with 1/4 cup cooking water, and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to release the brown bits. Add sambal oelek, cook for 2 minutes.
- Toss with spaghetti and add 1/4 cup cooking water. Add parmesan and transfer shrimp back to the skillet. Add parsley, stir until smooth and glossy. Add more cooking water if needed.
- Divide spaghetti among bowls, serve with extra Parmesan. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
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Your recipes look amazing! Can’t wait to try some of them.
Thank you so much! Happy cooking!
This was great. I made the sauce to put over polenta so I used broth instead of the pasta water, and I added a giant summer leek. Thank you!
Fantastic! I am so glad to hear that the recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it!
Delicious and creamy – the tomatoes add a great freshness and we really liked the nice kick from the sambal and the pepper flakes. Don’t forget the butter, it helps emulsify the sauce and make it nice and glossy 🙂 we’ll make this again for sure!
So glad to hear that Caite!
Very good!
Thank you José!
Will definitely make this again. Great kick from the chilli (but I reduced the amount of salt stated).
Yay! So glad you enjoyed Fiona! Thank you for giving this recipe a try!