Shrimp and Tomato Pasta

This is a very good and simple recipe. However, the first time I made it, it seemed rather bland. The second time I added an extra large clove of garlic and tripled the amoung of red pepper flakes and it was much improved. I am learning that most of the NY Times recipes are developed for people with bland appetites, so I just substantially increase the seasonings and they become quite good.

I made this with heirloom "Black Cherry" tomatoes and served it over fresh home-made bucatini. I'm lucky to have a commercial pasta extruder so I eat a lot of fresh pasta. One thing I will say: I am very skeptical that the tomatoes in the image were really cooked for 20-25 minutes. It didn't take 10 minutes really for the tomatoes to mostly break down, and at the end of the process were mostly just skins. I was half-tempted to sieve them out. It was absolutely delicious.

Very tasty and easy to scale down to serving for one. Made a few minor adjustments. Waited to saute shrimp until there was a garlic, fennel, chili flakes infused oil. Removed them and garlic after about 3-4 minutes. Cooked the tomatoes until falling apart (about 10 min). Added al dente pasta with some water. Finished the pasta in the sauce. Returned shrimp, chopped cooked garlic, and basil with some parsley and heated through. Added a touch of butter to finish sauce. Sublime! Will make again!

Anise seeds or dill seeds would be close substitutes, but that might be the same flavor profile you don't like. For a different twist, try celery seeds. Capers are good with shrimp and tomatoes, as is rosemary. A dash of soy sauce, fish sauce, or Worcestershire sauce would perk up the dish as well.

Is there any reason not to just cook the shrimp in the sauce right at the end? Cooking shrimp, dumping oil, and then reheating in the sauce seems almost an unnecessary extra step unless you are really going for a hard sear on them.

Brian, you need a food stylist with you in the kitchen if you want yours to look like the picture. That said, cherry and grape tomatoes vary in their softness; those institutional grade tomatoes can be tough (and flavorless.)

I don’t care for fennel so I added a couple pinches of Italian seasoning in its place and was liberal with the red pepper flakes. Otherwise I didn’t change. SO GOOD!

I plan on using regular tomatoes chopped into cherry tomato size. I'm not worried about skin and seeds because they will have a lower ratio of both than cherry tomatoes do.

My thought exactly. So I did cook the sauce with the shrimp. In fact, the fishy oil made for quite a flavorful sauce. I highly recommend trying it.

Very good. Didn’t use fennel. Basil parsley Italian seasoning

Yummy as the recipe directs. As for one of comments about adding tomato paste and using grated Parmesan on a shrimp dish, well, pease don’t. I’m from NYC and every professional chef I know would cringe.

Yummy, yummy, silky sauce goodness. Like others on here, I just added the shrimp to the sauce to cook, and finished the pasta in the sauce pan with a bit of pasta water. Added a squirt of fresh lemon juice and some capers just because. Delicious.

This was great. Pretty easy to pull together and the fennel added a delicious note. And using sea scallops and subbing penne for spaghetti worked well. This was the second NYT recipe I made today to reheat for the week. App is worth every penny IMO. Thanks!

I found this recipe when I was looking for a shrimp recipe but now I make it without shrimp as a delicious pasta sauce. As noted the spices can be varied to taste but my preference was more garlic.