This easy meal is one of my favorites and it comes together in under 30 minutes. There's plenty of garlic, lots of fresh tomatoes, and an herbaceous brightness of basil. It's delicious.
The Shrimp
I usually buy my shrimp frozen, raw, and in the shell. The whole dish has a better flavor when the shrimp has been cleaned well and deveined properly, in my opinion, so I always plan for that accordingly. If you need to save time you can buy raw shrimp that have already been peeled, cleaned, and deveined. I do take the tails off my shrimp for this dish because I feel that it's easier to eat that way.
Dairy-Free Butter In This Dish
I use a bit of butter in this dish because it adds a nice fatty, creamy touch to the sauce. Some of my dairy-free favorites are Earth Balance, Miyoko's, and Kite Hill. If you can't find dairy-free butter or prefer not to use it you can substitute it with ¼ cup of olive oil in addition to the ¼ cup that the recipe calls for.
Other Ingredient Notes:
- You want to use freshly squeezed lemon in this dish. Don't use that stuff in the bottle, it won't taste as good.
- I like to use tomatoes on the vine because they seem to retain more of their flavor.
- Fresh basil leaves will give you more of that bright flavor, and I wouldn't recommend using dried or that stuff in the tube.
- I use gluten-free capellini to make this but any long pasta will work, such as angel hair or spaghetti. I wouldn't recommend the thick variations because the sauce isn't heavy enough.
- A generous sprinkle of parmesan is wonderful to finish this, but it is not necessary. Violife Just Like Parmesan is my current favorite dairy-free parmesan, as I find it shreds and tastes more like the real thing than any other brand I've tried.
Shrimp & Pasta With Basil and Tomato
Ingredients
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ cup butter or appropriate substitute I used Miyoko's
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lb raw shrimp peeled, cleaned, and deveined
- ¼ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 large tomatoes diced
- ¼ cup fresh chopped basil
- 12 oz capellini cooked. Angel hair works too
- parmesan optional, for garnish. I used Violife.
Instructions
- Cook your pasta according to the packaging instructions. Drain the pasta from the water and set it aside. You can drizzle it with a small amount of olive oil to prevent it from sticking.
- Melt your butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add your garlic and sautée for 1 or two minutes, just until it's fragrant.
- Add in your lemon juice and give it a stir.
- Add your shrimp to the pan and cook it for about two minutes, just until the bottom starts to turn pink.
- Flip the shrimp and add in your tomatoes and chopped basil.
- Continue cooking for about two minutes, until the shrimp has turned pink and is cooked through. Be careful not to overcook it.
- Gently add your pasta to the shrimp and give it a good toss to cover it with the sauce.
- Garnish with more basil and freshly shredded parmesan if you'd like.
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