If you are looking for a quick and tasty dinner loaded with shrimps, you must bookmark this 20-minute red sauce spaghetti recipe.
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The 20-Minute Formula
For busy weekdays, I am always looking for dinner recipes that are easy to prepare, tasty to the core, and come together in under 30 minutes. This red sauce spaghetti recipe rainchecks all the mentioned criteria of my favourite weeknight dinner.
It is nothing fancy but a comforting combination of pasta and tomato sauce with an addition of garlic and shrimps. What’s there to not love? It takes lesser time to get ready than home delivery from a restaurant.
Looking for easy Dinner ideas?
Tomato Sauce for Spaghetti
The key ingredient in this red sauce spaghetti recipe is tomato sauce. I always have a bottle of a multi-purpose tomato pizza and pasta sauce sitting in the refrigerator. For this 20-minute pasta recipe, it is a saviour.
You can make this tomato sauce from scratch for this red sauce spaghetti or prepare a batch while meal-prepping. You can store it in the refrigerator for 3 – 5 days.
Now, if you have a readymade bottle of marinara sauce, arrabbiata sauce, spaghetti sauce, or basic tomato pizza sauce, that works perfectly fine.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The ingredient list for this red sauce spaghetti recipe is precise and straightforward.
- Pasta: From spaghetti, penne, rigatoni, and tagliatelle to rotini or tiny shell pasta, all of these taste good with a robust tomato sauce. I often make another version of red sauce pasta with penne which tastes delicious.
- Tomato Sauce: Marinara, arrabbiata, or basic tomato sauce for pizza and pasta
- Shrimps or prawns both work in this pasta recipe. You can add grilled chicken as well instead of seafood.
- Boiled Pasta Water: It gives the desired consistency to the tomato sauce. You can use vegetable stock instead of boiled pasta water.
- Garlic: It adds a great taste to the red sauce spaghetti
- Seasoning: Italian herbs like oregano, thyme, sage, fresh basil leaves, salt, pepper
How To Make Red Sauce Spaghetti
Step 1) Boil spaghetti pasta till al dente. Reserve 1 cup of boiled pasta water and drain the rest.
Step 2) Heat olive oil, saute garlic, chilli flakes (optional), and herbs for a few seconds. Add shrimp and saute till cooked.
Step 3) Add tomato sauce, salt, pepper, boiled pasta water, and SIMMER for 2 – 3 minutes.
Step 4) Add pasta, MIX, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle fresh herbs. ENJOY!
Red Sauce Spaghetti (Veg) Video
Serving suggestion
Serve red sauce spaghetti with toasted garlic bread, cheesy breadsticks, or focaccia to soak up that delicious red sauce.
A light green salad like classic caesar salad, arugula with shaved parmesan, garlic roasted potatoes, or garlic flavoured broccoli are also nice ideas for the side dishes.
If you are a pasta lover, then must try these delicious pasta recipes – Vegetable Minestrone Soup, one pot Chicken Broccoli Pasta, or the easy peasy Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes.
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Shrimp Red Sauce Spaghetti Recipe
- Saucepan
- Stir Fry Pan
Ingredients
- 200 gram spaghetti pasta
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb mix (oregano, thyme, sage)
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 200 gram shrimps/prawns (cleaned and deveined)
- 1 Cup tomato marinara or arabiatta sauce see recipe here
- ½ Cup boiled pasta water
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoon green onion or chives, chopped
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to packet directions, but reduce the cooking time by 1 minute (because the pasta will cook further in the sauce as well). Hence, it is best to cook pasta al dente.
- Reserve 1 Cup of boiled pasta water, drain the remaining water from the pasta. Rinse pasta with water to stop the cooking process. Set aside in a metal colander.
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add garlic, Italian herb, chili flakes, and saute for 20 – 30 seconds to infuse the flavor into the oil. No need to brown the garlic.
- Add shrimps, and saute till they are fully cooked. Shrimp does not take a long time to cook. They are fully cooked in 5 – 6 minutes.
- Add the red pasta sauce, salt, pepper, boiled pasta water, and quickly stir. Simmer the sauce for 5 – 6 minutes. Taste and add more seasoning if required.
- Add boiled pasta and gently toss to coat it with the sauce. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
- Garnish pasta with fresh basil leaves or chives or green onion.
- Serve red sauce spaghetti with a toasted bread slice.
Recipe Notes:
- Any good quality tomato pasta sauce such as marinara or arrabbiata works for this recipe.
- Adding shrimp is optional. You can substitute shrimp with clams, squid, prawns, or any other seafood of choice.
- Pasta absorbs a lot of sauce and liquid, hence adjust the quantity of sauce according to your pasta amount.
- With the addition of boiled pasta water, the sauce reaches the perfect consistency and clings to the spaghetti. You can transform this red sauce spaghetti into a pink sauce pasta using full-fat heavy cream instead of boiled pasta water. Isn’t that cool?
Hollie Hewitt says
Good soup
Veronica says
DELICIOUS. Easy and quick to make. Very tasty!!
Hina Gujral says
So happy you liked it!
Janet says
Very Good!!! Quick question, the recipe says to set aside 1 cup pasta water, but in the instructions it calls for only 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Which do you recommend, 1 cup or 1/2 cup pasta water?
Hina Gujral says
We said 1 Cup pasta water because sometimes if the sauce seems too dry you can add remaining half cup also to losen it a bit. Hence, for precaution, its best to save 1 Cup of boiled pasta water.
Gale Scott says
Not only did I use shrimp but added ground beef to the sauce. A meal to remember
Hina Gujral says
Sounds delicious!!
Gretchen says
Loved this! I was up against dinner time and chose the recipe w/ fewest ingredients. The directions were very easy to follow & it came together beautifully. Perfect amount of heat. This is in our rotation. 😊 😘
Hina Gujral says
So happy to read your feedback on the recipe. Thank you for taking time out and sharing this with me.