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Tomato Pesto Pasta with Shrimps and Zucchini

Course Main Course
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Author Sandra | Sandra's Easy Cooking

Ingredients

  • 4 cups Dried Pasta I used Elicoidali -Tubular pasta + Water + Salt
  • ½ tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 3 Garlic cloves sliced
  • 1 cup Small Tomato Medley or Cherry/Grape Tomatoes
  • 1-2 Zucchini preferably smaller/young, sliced
  • 4 Oz 16 Oz Shrimps, per person, cleaned
  • ½ tbsp. Lemon juice Meyer lemon
  • A pinch of Sea Salt and ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons Fresh Basil chopped + for garnish
  • 2 tablespoons Tomato Pesto
  • Grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Boil pasta according to the package and/or cook it to your own taste preference. You want pasta al dente, so approximately 10-15 minutes in a boiling water – depending what type of pasta you are using. Stir the pasta as it cooks, to keep it from sticking to each other. Just before the pasta is approximately cooked, remove a piece of the pasta to check for doneness. Make sure to season water before dropping the pasta in and you will need about 1 tablespoon of table salt. Drain, but reserve ¼ cup of pasta water, drizzle a bit of olive oil, toss to coat it with olive oil and set aside.
  2. Heat a large pan with a good drizzle of olive oil, and add sliced garlic. Just before garlic slices turn to golden, add whole tomatoes. Make sure that you keep moving tomatoes so they do not burn. When the tomatoes start to blister add zucchini slices, and stir for about 45 to 60 seconds on medium heat.
  3. Toss in cleaned and deveined shrimps, then add just a pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper. Keep stirring for a minute or so and add about ½ tablespoon of lemon juice. When the shrimps start to turn into deeper pink color, they are done. Add ¼ cup reserved pasta water and stir. At this point add freshly chopped basil and tomato pesto and stir.
  4. Keep the temperature at medium-low. Add pasta to the skillet, one cup at the time and mix it. You want the pasta to be completely coated with tomato pesto. Serve it with a bit of grated Parmesan cheese and perhaps some salad on the side.

Recipe Notes

If the shrimp is frozen, just fill a large bowl with cold water. Submerge the shrimps in the cold water and that should do the trick pretty fast. You can use any shrimps that you desire. Also, if you are vegan or allergic, you could make it without shrimps and cheese, which is also very delicious. You can use a different pasta, for example, gluten free pasta, egg pasta, spaghetti, or perhaps if you are on low carb diet you may use zoodles (zucchini noodles). You can use chicken, however, it might take a bit longer to cook. I would suggest that you cook the chicken first. So, cut into bite-size pieces and season it with a bit of salt and ground black pepper, then cook it in the skillet with a bit of oil for about 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat. After it cooks just transfer it to the paper towel and set aside until it's ready to be used. So you would add the chicken back at the point when I added shrimp, which is after I sauteed garlic, tomatoes, and zucchini.