Name: Creamy Prawn Linguine (The Best)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 240 to 300 g King Prawns; 250 g Linguine; 250 ml Double Cream; 70 ml White Wine; 50 g Freshly Grated Parmesan ((Plus More For Serving)); 3 Garlic Cloves; 2 tbsp Butter; 2 tsp Fresh Parsley; ½ tsp Chilli Flakes ((Or To Taste)); 1 tsp Black Pepper ((Or To Taste)); ½ tsp Salt ((Or To Taste))

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Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta Recipe

Garlic prawn pasta, an irresistibly creamy recipe that’s full of flavour and looks incredibly succulent. Despite its gorgeous looks, this recipe is so easy to make!

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Delicious al dente pasta lavishly coated in a creamy and velvety sauce that’s also packed with lots of king prawns. This creamy prawn linguine is one of my go-to recipes and I can’t wait to share it with you.

This is THE ideal recipe for a quick weekday dinner that’s also fancy enough for special occasions too. The best part? It only takes 20 minutes to make!

It’s made with linguine and let me tell you, this garlic prawn pasta recipe is an absolute winner, it’s so good you’ll finish it in no time.

Why You’ll Like This Recipe

A super easy prawn pasta recipe
You only need a few ingredients
It’s rich, indulgent and just so good
A great way to use up leftover prawns
The sauce has a delicious garlic flavour like this garlic butter prawns recipe

I’ve made garlic prawn pasta on my occasions and I prefer it when the sauce is creamy and when I use linguine pasta. Linguine holds sauces better than spaghetti, which is why it’s my favourite.

If you love pasta recipes as much as I do, then you have to try this pesto pasta recipe (it’s ready in just 15 minutes).

Watch How To Make It

Recipe Ingredients

Below are the few ingredients needed to make this recipe:

Prawns: I prefer using large prawns such as king or jumbo prawns, but any size is fine to use. The time needed to cook the prawns will be dependent on the size of prawns you use. Peel and devein the prawns before cooking.
Linguine: A long strand pasta that’s slightly flatter than spaghetti.
Double Cream: The main ingredient to create the creamy prawn pasta sauce that covers the linguine.
White Wine: Any dry white wine like sauv blanc is fine to use for this recipe. If you don’t want to use wine in this dish, you can substitute it with vegetable or chicken stock.
Garlic: I love adding a lot of garlic (3 cloves) to the pasta sauce, add more or less depending on your preference. Instead of garlic cloves you can use garlic paste.
Parmesan: Added to create an indulgent cheese flavour and enhance the overall taste. Make sure to keep extra parmesan to sprinkle over the pasta before serving.
Seasonings & Herbs: This recipe is seasoned with black pepper, salt, fresh parsley and chilli flakes. If you don’t want a chilli garlic prawn pasta, then you can leave the chilli flakes out.
Butter: Used for the cooking process, use salted or unsalted butter.

Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta Sauce

The sauce for this recipe is made with double cream and white wine. Double cream makes the sauce ultra-creamy whilst white wine adds depth to the sauce.

Chilli flakes are added to this garlic prawn pasta recipe to add a little heat. You can leave out the chilli flakes if you prefer this dish mild.

What Prawns To Use For Creamy Prawn Pasta?

Prawns and pasta, a pairing that goes so well together! The types of prawns (shrimps) you use is up to your personal preference. I like to use fresh king prawns or jumbo prawns, but you can also use smaller prawns too.

If you want, you can use whole prawns (with the head and shell attached), keeping the shell on contains the pasta sauce within.

Most pre-packed prawns come deshelled but not all prawns are deveined. Even though I find cleaning prawns quite tedious, it’s actually quite easy to do, I’ll show you how further down in this post.

Can I Use Frozen Prawns?

Yes, you can use frozen prawns but they’ll need to be defrosted before starting this recipe.

I like to use fully defrosted prawns so that they all cook at the same time, this prevents some prawns from cooking and turning chewy whilst other pieces are undercooked.

How To Prep & Devein Prawns

I’ve listed 4 steps below on how to devein and prepare your prawn before starting this recipe:

Rinse the prawns under the tap using cold water, then dry the prawns with a paper towel.
Remove the head and legs from the prawns and peel the skin off.
With a sharp knife, cut a straight line through the head of the prawn to the tail.
Use the tip of the knife or a toothpick to remove the vein, you can also do this by hand. Be gentle at this stage otherwise the vein can break when being pulled out.

How To Make Creamy Garlic Prawn Linguine

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to make this easy and simple garlic prawn pasta. Full recipe instructions are on the recipe card:

Step One:

Place pasta in a pot of boiling water seasoned with salt and cook until al dente. Keep at least one cup of pasta water to use later in this recipe.

TIP: Pasta water helps the sauce thin out to the perfect consistency and helps the sauce cling to the pasta better.

Step Two:

Add butter to a large pan heated over a medium to high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the prawns and fry each side for one to two minutes or until cooked through on each side.

Once cooked, remove the prawns from the heat and set aside for later use.

TIP: Perfectly cooked prawns curl into a nice C shape, overcooked prawns are shaped like an O.

Step Three:

In the same pan add garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add white wine and stir, then leave it to simmer until the white wine has reduced.

TIP: This should take 2 to 3 minutes, stir the pan when necessary to prevent the garlic from sticking to the pan.

Step Four:

Parmesan and seasonings mixed into double cream

Pour the cream into the pan, then mix in the cheese, salt, black pepper and chilli flakes to taste. Leave the sauce to simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Step Five:

Once the sauce has reached your desired thickness, add the pasta to the pan and toss it into the sauce then mix in the prawns.

Add more pasta water to make the sauce runnier or leave the sauce to simmer for longer to thicken it further.

Finish with sprinkling diced parsley on top.

What To Serve With Creamy Prawn Linguine

To finish, I like to sprinkle parsley and grated parmesan on top, it adds extra flavour and makes this pasta recipe look so tempting.

If you’re wondering what the best dishes are to serve with this prawn linguine recipe, I’ve got you covered with this list below:

How Do I Know When The Prawns Are Cooked?

Prawns cook very quickly so they only need to be fried for a few minutes. Generally, medium sized prawns take me 2 to 4 minutes to cook whilst jumbo and large prawns can take up to 8 minutes.

This really depends on the size of prawns you use, but this guide below will help you identify if your prawns are cooked.

Cooked prawns: Perfectly cooked prawns curl into a nice C shape.

Overcooked prawns: Overcooked prawns curl into an O shape.

Remember, C is cooked, and O is overcooked!

Recipe Variations

Change The Pasta: Instead of linguine you can use fettuccine, mafalde or even spaghetti.

Make A Chilli Garlic Prawn Pasta: There is a little kick from the chilli flakes but you can boost the heat by adding fresh chillies to the pasta sauce. Finish this dish with extra chilli flakes sprinkled on top.

Swap Prawns: The great thing about this dish is that you can swap the prawns for chicken, smoked lardons or mushrooms to make it vegetarian.

My Top Tips

I recommend using raw prawns as they’re fresh and full of flavour when cooked. Cooked prawns turn rubbery quickly and do not add as much flavour.

For extra flavour swap butter for infused oil like truffle infused oil, garlic or even chilli infused oil. This will add so much flavour to the prawns that are cooked in it.

For a strong garlic flavour in this prawn pasta recipe, use black garlic! It’s fermented so the flavour is unique, complex and rich.

This recipe makes for 4 standard meals but can easily be turned into 3 bigger plates (for anyone like me who likes slightly bigger portions!).

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