Lemon Garlic Parmesan Shrimp Pasta

Despite saying I was going to make soup this week because of the cold rainy weather, I was really craving the seafood fettuccine from Whitespot.

I did my best to make a pasta that resembled this one with the ingredients that I had. If you choose to make this quick and easy (and I mean really quick and easy) pasta at home, this is the recipe I followed:

This was such a rewarding meal to make. I had been craving the seafood fettuccine from Whitespot all weekend, with a promise to get it on Monday night before the trick-or-treaters came. However, time got away from us and trick-or-treaters started coming around 6. I decided to try and make a pasta similar to this one at home, so that I could feed my roommate, her partner, my partner, as well as myself for the week. Unfortunately we were all super hungry, and I only had enough left over to fill 3 meal prep containers. I also made too many noodles (I have a huge problem with portioning noodles) so the ratio of filling to noodle was a bit off. If you make this at home, I would recommend actually following the recipe, rather than free throwing ingredients like I did. With that being said, it’s important to note that I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and I didn’t measure all the ingredients I used. So the recipe below includes the ingredients, but how much to use is up to your taste.

Lemon Garlic Parmesan Shrimp Pasta

Ingredients

• Linguine noodles
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 5 cloves of garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Shrimp
• Salt
• Pepper
• Italian seasoning
• Spinach
• Freshly grated parmesan
• Parsley
• Lemon juice
• Cherry tomatoes

Instructions

• If you purchased frozen shrimp, run them under cold water for 10 minutes. Remove the tails if they aren’t already removed.

• While the shrimps are thawing, grate the parmesan, chop the parley, and mince the garlic.

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and boil until noodles are soft. Drain and put them back into the pot. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and set them aside.
• In a large sauce pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and butter over medium-low heat.
• When the butter melts and starts to bubble slightly, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant.
• Add the shrimp and salt and pepper (to taste). Cook until the shrimp are pink.

• Add the italian seasoning and tomatoes. Wait until the tomato skin starts to wrinkle and comes loose from the tomatos. Add the spinach and cook until wilted.

• Add the ingredients in the pan to the pot of noodles with your parmesan, lemon juice, parsley, and 4 tablespoons of butter. Mix together until the butter completely melts.

• Add the pasta to your meal prep containers with a sprinkle of parmesan, and place in the fridge until ready to warm and eat.

Although I only had enough to fill three meal prep containers, this meal was still incredibly tasty on the third day. I found myself eating it long before lunch time because I just couldn’t wait. Personally I would give this meal prep recipe a 5/5 for taste and quality at the end of the week. The only thing I would note is if you don’t like seafood, this isn’t the recipe for you as it is shrimp dominated. Additionally, if you struggle with certain food textures, be warned that popped cherry tomatoes do have a mushy texture to them.

Overall, this was a great experience. I was able to make this meal in under a half hour, and it made 7 portions total. If I wasn’t feeding three other people that night, it would have made for a lot of meal prep! Something I have learned from this experience is always make too little noodles, not too much. I find that a pasta with a lot of filling and little noodles is better than a pasta that has a lot of noodles and little filling. It makes it taste kind of bland without as much filling. So I will keep this in mind for next time. Another thing I will do differently is actually following the recipe. I tried to modify it to use up all the ingredients I had, rather than buying more, and I found that the flavour wasn’t as “lemony” and “garlicy” as I would have liked. I plan to reuse this recipe in the future, but I will make sure to use my learning from this experience to improve. I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my journey and you’re able to give this quick and easy recipe a shot!