Crispy Shrimp Pasta with Arugula Pesto Cream Sauce.
There is one green that I occasionally allow in my life.
I actually really enjoy arugula. Well, as much as someone who doesn’t love veggies can like a green.
One of the first recipes I ever shared here was arugula and asiago pesto. When prepared this way, I adore arugula. I love it’s peppery flavor and the bite it gives to every dish. In fact, I might be able to eat more veggies if I throw some arugula pesto on them. I need to get on that.
It had been far too long since I made a batch, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.
Ever since making the crispy shrimp tacos, I can’t get that crispy shrimp out of my mind. We’ve eaten it four times in the last week and a half because it is so delicious, and perhaps most importantly – easy and quick! It is quite flavorful too.
So I cooked up the shrimp, boiled some pasta, threw on the pesto, and had a full meal in minutes. There are layers of flavor going on in that bowl. Just the way I like it.
Oh… and instead of just regular pesto? I made it into a cream sauce. Because everything is better with cream. You can leave that part out. But why would you want to?
This is a very green dish for me! It doesn’t get much greener than this.
Crispy Shrimp Pasta
Ingredients
Crispy Shrimp Pasta
- 1 pound raw, deveined shrimp (tails removed)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 pound whole wheat fettuccine, or pasta of choice
Arugula Pesto Cream Sauce
- 1 6- ounce bag of arugula
- 1/3 cup asiago cheese, you can sub parmesan if you’d like
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 cup olive oil + more if needed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Crispy Shrimp Pasta
- Boil water for pasta and begin to cook according to directions.
- Make sure shrimp is clean and completely dry. Combine salt, pepper, and garlic powder and sprinkle it over the shrimp. Add the flour to a small bowl, and dredge the shrimp through the flour to get a very light coating on it. Heat a skillet on medium high heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the shrimp and brown on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Drain cooked pasta and add pasta to the shrimp. Top with pesto. To serve, garnish with fresh parmesan.
Arugula Pesto Cream Sauce
- In a food processor, combine garlic, arugula and cheese. Pulse until combined. Stream in olive oil one tablespoon at a time until the pesto becomes smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired. Add pesto to a large bowl and stir in cream, using a large spoon. Add to shrimp and pasta when ready.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
I’m counting this as fifty servings of veggies. That sounds fair.
115 Comments on “Crispy Shrimp Pasta with Arugula Pesto Cream Sauce.”
Um can we discuss how much I adore you? My mom was just asking me what she should do with the shrimp she planned on making for dinner since it’s Lent. You’re pretty magical is ALL I’m going to say…
Sweet!
I can’t get over how GREEN this is….The finished pile of pasta looks perfect!
YUM! This pasta looks delicious! I am so proud of you for eating your veggies! :-)
This looks amazing! Maybe this will be my pre-national half marathon meal! Thanks for the idea!
Oooh arugula pesto?! I always make my own pesto, but I’ve never thought of arugula in it…sounds terrific!
This looks amazing! I made something a similar pasta sauce last week (same color, different ingredients) http://cagirlcooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/lemon-avocado-pasta-sauce.html
That looks SO good! Was the arugula a bit bitter/spicy?
Yes, that’s why I love it!
The green is so vibrant! A perfect spring recipe :-)
Wow I can tell this is something I’ll like most def. :D Haha, it reminds me of green monster covered pasta or something? :P
That green color is a-mazing! So vibrant!
You need to stop making me want EVERYTHING you post! Ahhh! I love pesto!
We had pesto for st paddy’s day too! only with Basil and cashews nuts. and totally with you on the creamy pesto sauce thing! (and if you put in cooked green beans with the green stuff you get extra veggies without changing the taste! http://blogbaker.blogspot.com/2011/03/there-are-no-words.html
Droooooling… this is all things that are perfect. Crunch? Yes. Shrimp? Yes. Pasta? Yes. ARUGULA? Umm there aren’t words. Thanks!
I love the color of the arugula! That’s such a cool idea to turn pesto into a cream sauce. I’ll definitely be giving that a try! :D
I LOVEEE ARUGULA!
Oh, yum!
I love arugula. This dish is so green it makes me think of spring
This pasta looks amazing!!! I can’t wait to make it!!! I love pesto!!!
This pasta looks amazing!!! I can’t wait to make it!!! I love pesto!!!
I could probably eat this entire recipe single handedly. How delicious!
HI Jessica, just found your blog via Alissa’s blogroll. HAD to say “hi” and thanks for such a BEAUTIFUL site. Your photos are stellar! I have bookmarked, will visit often and I can’t wait to try some of your amazing looking recipes. Have a great weekend.
Thank you Roz!
What a fantastic idea for pesto.. I LOVE it, your photos in each post, are getting better and better, not that I’m an authority on photography, but I just wanted to compliment you. = )
Thank you so much!!
how long is the shelf life of the pesto if i store it.?
I love irregular pestos! And I love arugula so this would be a fantastic thing for me to try!
I am going to print this recipe- my family would LOVE it. And I know st pats day has past, but it would be a great GREEEN meal to have haha
how pretty is that green sauce! I love arugula, and now am craving this pesto! :) I think I have all the ingredients I need too!
I don’t tend to like greens…or veggies in general really. But I feel as though I can get behind this dish. And I completely agree that everything is better with cream. Thanks for sharing!
holy cow, that sounds amazing!! love the green color too!
Shrimp with pesto cream sauce is one of my favorite things on the planet. I bet this is aaaammazinggg!
Way to squeeze so much green into that recipe! It looks awesome, and I’d love to try my hand at veganizing it.
wow, looks amazing!
do you think you could use maybe plain yogurt instead of cream to keep fat/calories down??
just saw this and thought I would comment- I made this last night and used fat free half and half in place of heavy cream and it came out perfectly :)
thanx!!!!!
Holy yum!! So totally flagging this to make in the next couple of weeks!
Awesome recipe! I made it last night for me and my boyfriend and we both LOVED IT. It got me in the mood for spring with the green color and the fresh taste – too bad we woke up this morning to snow! ohhhh New England! The one thing keeping me happy today? I have the leftovers today for lunch :)
I made this for dinner last night, well honestly it was more of a bastard knockoff of your superb version because I was trying to use what I had on hand. Instead of plain arugula, I used spring mix from Costco. Instead of asiago, I used Romano, instead of shrimp I used chicken, and instead of a garlic clove I used minced garlic from a jar. Oh and instead of whole wheat noodles I used super cheap not very good for your enriched flour bow ties. I also added red bell pepper and mushrooms because otherwise they would have met their death in bottom of the fridge.
Still even with all these alterations it was absolutely delicious!!! What a great recipe! And man oh man can you believe it’s even BETTER the next day? How’d you do that? lol
I read your blog everyday, thanks for all the great ideas!
So glad you liked it!! :) Thanks for reading!
Just wanted to say that I made this tonight, and it was delicious! But I had to leave out the cream (the way you feel about vegetables is the way my father feels about cream). Even though it was cream-less it still tasted awesome. The arugula pesto has a great flavor to it. Thanks for the great recipe!
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My mouth/brain/stomach is a really big fan of all of these crispy shrimp recipes. Definitely going to try this pesto soon.
My daughter made this for me today as a surprise birthday lunch. It was delicious! So fresh tasting and of course green!
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I just discovered your blog and I was so excited to try this dish. I have to say, as a fan of standard pesto with basil, I found the pesto too peppery, too biting. I’ll keep trying recipes, though, because your blog looks great!
Just discovered your blog and I tried this recipe tonight. It was amaze-balls! Thanks!
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This is very delicious, I love it!
I made this tonight and it was really good. Â I added butter, because I’m that kind of girl and next time I’ll add some pine nuts, but I like this as a vegetarian dish, and yes, so easy and wonderful and really feel healthy and good about eating this. Â
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