I hate lemon candy or pretty much anything that attempts to imitate the magnificent taste of fresh lemon. That’s because fresh lemon is a beautiful thing that can make almost anything look, smell and taste better. This lemon garlic pasta with shrimp dish that accentuates lemon in such a delicious way.
I don’t know whether it was a Sicilian thing or not, but my mom’s sisters squeezed lemon on almost all of their veggies and salads. That and vinegar. Yep, they were big on lemon and vinegar. And I guess I inherited that from them.
About the Lemon Garlic Pasta with Shrimp
This lemon pasta tastes like someone spent hours in the kitchen preparing it, but it’s very simple to make. One of the things I learned from my Sicilian mom is the best dishes are the simplest ones made with the freshest ingredients.
A few nights ago, I celebrated my friend Lisa’s birthday at a lovely home in Northern California. The hosts were so gracious, even letting me pick gorgeous, aromatic lemons from their backyard.
I wanted to make something special with them, so I decided to make this pasta. If you follow these simple directions, you’ll see that it really is special. My daughter said it was the best thing she ever ate, but then again she says that about a lot of foods. But I get it – she really liked it a LOT.
Lemon & Garlic Pasta with Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti I used whole wheat
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 lemons
- 6 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium zucchini finely grated
- 1 pound shrimp peeled, deveined
- 1/8 cup white wine
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper freshly ground, to taste
- 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano cheese
Instructions
- Cook pasta to al dente; retain one cup of pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and toss with a tablespoon of butter; set aside.
- To infuse the olive oil with lemon, peel rind off 1-2 lemons with knife (minus the thick white part). Saute rinds in 1/8 cup olive oil on low for 15 - 20 minutes. Leave 2 tablespoons of olive oil in pan and remove the rest. Discard skin and save olive oil for future use.
- Squeeze juice from the two peeled lemons; set juice aside.
- Finely grate the rind of third lemon; set zest aside.
- In pan with lemon olive oil, saute sliced garlic with crushed red pepper on medium for one minute.
- To same pan, add shrimp, zucchini, salt, pepper; saute for a few minutes until shrimp is pink (not translucent).
- Add lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/8 cup white wine.
- Continue to cook for a few minutes and then toss in cooked whole wheat pasta.
- Toss for a couple minutes. Add a little pasta water if pan doesn't have enough moisture, or pasta begins to stick together. Taste.
- Add more salt if needed; add fresh or dried parsley, black pepper and fresly grated Parmigiano cheese.
- Enjoy!
Yum! This looks great 🙂
what kind of white wine
Made this tonight and it was amazing! I didn’t have lemons – which I’m sure would make it better – but used lemon juice, TrueLemon, and lemon peel and it worked fine. Subbed ginger ale for the wine and voila! A delicious meal with a great zing to it! Thanks!
Oh great – sounds like you are so creative! Glad you enjoyed the dish!
i do like noodles, the image of your recipes make me hungry so much
Thank you!
Lemon brightens any meal and of course garlic had to be part of this recipe to make it even better. Thanks for sharing. It was so nice meeting you at Blog Her Food. I loved having a connection with you!
We loved this dish. I don’t ofter try new recipes, but saw this and thought I’ll give it a try. Loved it!!!
Thank You.
I’m so glad!
Wow amazing lemon garlic pasta shrimp recipe – it looked soooo good, I had to try and make it. I used your suggestion and used 3 lemons. I’m also gonna pin this post on my Pinterest board my followers will love it.
Thank you so much – how sweet! So glad you enjoyed the dish.
I am going to make this with fresh lemons off of my tree. you made it= sound so good Thanks
Yay! I’d love to hear how you like it!
This lemon garlic pasta shrimp looks absolutely fantastic. Beautiful photos, too. I look forward to trying this.
Thank you! 🙂
I had a similar lemon garlic pasta shrimp at a restaurant recently and found myself craving it and wondering if I could recreate it today.
You can!! 🙂
Hey there, I’m a huge fan of shrimps and this lemon garlic pasta with shrimps look way awesome!