Spaghetti with shrimp in cream sauce

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make spaghetti with shrimp in cream sauce? Gather the ingredients. My shrimp are jumbo, shell-on, and flash-frozen, but any will work — fresh or pre-cooked and frozen. For the sauce, use cream around 20% fat. Use durum-wheat spaghetti.

2. Step 2:

   

   Rinse the shrimp under running water. They thawed while I was washing and cleaning them.

3. Step 3:

   

   Next, peel the shrimp, removing the shells, tails, and dark veins. To remove the vein, cut along the back of the shrimp and gently lift out the dark vein with a knife. By now the shrimp were fully thawed.

4. Step 4:

   

   Make the sauce, but first put a pot of water on the stove for the spaghetti. Both the sauce and the pasta cook fast, so it's best to do them at the same time. Peel and finely chop the garlic.

5. Step 5:

   

   In a deep skillet, melt the butter, add the garlic, and lightly fry it over low heat for a few minutes.

6. Step 6:

   

   My shrimp are fairly large, so I cut them into smaller pieces; if yours are small, skip this step.

7. Step 7:

   

   Add the shrimp to the skillet with the garlic.

8. Step 8:

   

   Fry them, stirring constantly. If you're using pre-cooked shrimp, fry them only briefly, just to warm them through. I fried mine for five minutes — no longer, or they can turn rubbery.

9. Step 9:

   

   Meanwhile the water will have come to a boil; add the spaghetti and salt it. Let it cook.

10. Step 10:

    

    Pour the cream over the shrimp, add salt and pepper, and stir well. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and let the sauce cook gently for five minutes.

11. Step 11:

    

    Wash, dry, and chop the parsley. It pairs best with shrimp spaghetti — I wouldn't use other herbs here. Set some aside for serving.

12. Step 12:

    

    Add the parsley to the sauce, stir, and turn off the heat.

13. Step 13:

    

    By now the spaghetti has cooked. Don't cook it until fully soft — leave it a little firm, the state called al dente. It'll finish cooking once it meets the hot sauce. I'd go by the time on the package and cook the spaghetti a minute less. If the sauce isn't ready yet but the spaghetti is, drain it, reserving some of the cooking water.

14. Step 14:

    

    Add the spaghetti to the skillet with the sauce and toss well. If it seems too dry, add a splash of the reserved pasta water. Let it sit for a couple of minutes so the pasta soaks up the sauce's flavor and finishes cooking. Serve the spaghetti hot, sprinkled with parsley. Enjoy!