This Shrimp Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes is a wonderful summer recipe with the sweetest, most flavorful fresh tomato sauce you’ll ever have.
Why You Should Make This Pasta
This recipe is a slight twist from a recipe taught to me by a wonderful chef (my favorite ex-boss) from Rome. My nonna’s fresh tomato sauce is near and dear to me, but his recipe is mind-blowing. The secret to the tomato sauce is cooking onions low and slow until they’re sweet and caramelized, but still light in color.
Honestly, the shrimp is just a little bonus here. I love this fresh tomato sauce with or without the shrimp. As far as the pasta goes, traditional spaghetti works great, but spaghetti alla chitarra (of the guitar) is even better. This pasta is cut with a special tool with strings resembling guitar strings. The texture and shape of this pasta is very unique, and definitely worth a try if you can ever get your hands on it!
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta– I really love using spaghetti alla chitarra but you can also use regular spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, penne, farfalle or fusilli. This pasta sauce works well with so many different pasta shapes!
- Shrimp– Fresh is always best. I like keeping the tails on for presentation. For a vegetarian version, omit the shrimp.
- Tomatoes– In my area, cocktail or compari tomatoes are the sweetest, best variety for this type of preparation. You can also use roma or plum tomatoes. Just make sure they’re as ripe as possible!
- Onions- I was originally taught to make this recipe with spring onions because they’re so sweet and delicate, but obviously they only have a short growing season and are not widely available. Any kind of white or yellow onion would be a good substitute.
Recipe Steps
The first thing to do is prepare the sauce. Start off by sautéing the the onions. Cooking them over low heat for a longer period of time will give them a sweet, caramelized flavor. Add a pinch or two of red pepper for some mild heat.
Meanwhile, blanch and peel the tomatoes. Cut a small ‘x’ through the bottom of each tomato. Place tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes or until the skins start to peel away. Then shock them in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
Once cooled, peel the tomatoes and discard the skin. You can also remove the seeds, but I don’t find that necessary for a good final product. Any bitterness they impart is totally negligible and the juices help add some body to the sauce. Chop up the peeled tomatoes and add them to the onions. Allow it to simmer at least an hour or until it’s thick and flavorful.
When the sauce is ready, place a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. While the pasta cooks, sauté the shrimp in a large pan. Finish off the pasta in the sauce and add the shrimp along with some butter. I rarely use butter in tomato sauce, but it really balances out the acidity of the fresh tomatoes and gives the pasta a great glossy finish.
Tips and Recipe FAQs
- Plan ahead. You can do several steps of this recipe in advance. You can either make the entire tomato sauce in advance or get certain steps out of the way. Sauté the onions one night, store them in the fridge and reheat them the next day before adding the tomatoes. Or, blanch and peel the tomatoes in advance. You can even prepare a double or triple batch of this amazing tomato sauce and freeze it for future meals.
- In order to avoid overcooking the shrimp, slightly undercook it when you first sauté it. That way, when you add it to the pasta and sauce later on, it will be cooked just the perfect amount.
There’s a few reasons to leave the tails on shrimp in pasta. It looks more attractive and the shells do impart some flavor into the sauce. The pasta is much easier to eat without them, however, so most home cooks may prefer to remove them.
Fresh tomato sauce thickens by simmering until the water evaporates and the flavors concentrate. Some fresh tomato sauces are cooked quickly while others cook slowly for a longer period of time.
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Shrimp Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
- Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 3 servings 1x
- Diet: Low Lactose
Description
This Shrimp Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes is a wonderful summer recipe with the sweetest, most flavorful fresh tomato sauce you’ll ever have.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces spaghetti alla chitarra, regular spaghetti or pasta of choice
- 8 ounces shrimp, cleaned, bottom shell intact
- ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 8 ounces spring onions (3-5) or 1 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 ¼ pounds fresh tomatoes (about 30 cocktail/compari tomatoes) or plum/roma tomatoes
- 2 pinches hot red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper
- Basil leaves, as needed
Instructions
- Cook onions: Heat a sauce pan over medium heat. Add ¼ cup of oil and onions. Season with salt and hot pepper flakes. Cook slowly, reducing heat to medium-low when needed to prevent browning. Cook a total of about 25-30 minutes or until softened and very sweet.
- Blanch and peel tomatoes: While onions cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Using a paring knife, score tomatoes by cutting a small ‘x’ through the skin on the bottom of the tomatoes. This will make them easier to peel. Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice. Add tomatoes to boiling water in batches for about 15-30 seconds, or until skin starts to peel away. Use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer to ice water bath. When cooled, drain tomatoes and pat dry. Peel and discard skin. Chop in ½ inch pieces. Keep water in pot warm to later use for pasta.
- Cook tomatoes: Add tomatoes, salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the cooked onions. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 1 – 1 ½ hours or until sauce is flavorful and thickened.
- Cook pasta: Bring water back to a boil for the pasta. Season very generously with salt and cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving a cup of pasta water.
- Cook shrimp: While pasta cooks, heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add remaining tablespoon of oil followed by the shrimp. Cook a total of about 3 minutes or until mostly cooked through, flipping half way through. Remove from pan and lower heat to medium.
- Finish pasta: Add cooked pasta to pan with enough tomato sauce to coat. Add butter and toss until melted and emulsified. Stir in shrimp and torn basil leaves. Transfer to serving bowls and top with a spoonful of additional sauce, a drizzle of olive oil and torn or small basil leaves. Enjoy.
Notes
- I was originally taught to make this recipe with spring onions because they’re so sweet and delicate, but obviously they only have a short growing season and are not widely available. Any kind of white or yellow onion would be a good substitute.
- I really love using spaghetti alla chitarra but you can also use regular spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, penne, farfalle or fusilli. This pasta sauce works well with so many different pasta shapes!
- For a vegetarian version, omit the shrimp.
- In my area, cocktail or compari tomatoes are the sweetest, best variety for this type of preparation. You can also use roma or plum tomatoes. Just make sure they’re as ripe as possible! Sometimes I add a couple pinches of sugar to fresh tomato sauce made with roma tomatoes.
- You can do several steps of this recipe in advance. You can either make the entire tomato sauce in advance or get certain steps out of the way. Sauté the onions one night, store them in the fridge and reheat them the next day before adding the tomatoes. Or, blanch and peel the tomatoes in advance.
- You can even prepare a double or triple batch of this amazing tomato sauce and freeze it for future meals.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Saute
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅓ of pasta
- Calories: 750
- Sugar: 12g
- Sodium: 116mg
- Fat: 39g
- Saturated Fat: 8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 31g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 70g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 36g
- Cholesterol: 132mg
This looks delicious! I will definitely try it, minus the prawns. You have a wonderful website – I am going to bookmark it!
Thank you so much, Shalveena! I usually eat it without the shrimp, too 🙂
What a wonderful recipe!
Thank you, Diane!
That looks so good. Reminds me of an old recipe I used to make that’s very similar, but also contains goat cheese sprinkled on top!!!
That sounds good!!
Add the pasta to the pan with the tomato sauce. That is excellent advice!
Do you seed the tomatoes?
Thanks! The pasta is best when it absorbs a little sauce. I didn’t seed the tomatoes in this recipe. I have before and it honestly might be best like that, but this sauce comes out naturally sweet so I don’t see the need to seed the tomatoes. Maybe if I was using a different variety of tomato, I would.
What a beautiful and delicious looking dish!
Thanks so much, Jess!
Looks amazing ???? Will try this for sure!
Thanks! Let me know when you give it a try 🙂