Avocado and Shrimp Linguine – with garlic

If you like avocados then I think you will love this avocado and shrimp linguine. Plump and juicy shrimps are cooked in garlic butter and mixed with a creamy avocado chilli sauce for an easy pasta meal with a difference.

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Pasta with a difference

I was recently lucky enough to find avocados in my local supermarket at a give-away price, so of course, I bought as many as I could carry! They were still hard when I got them, so I left them in my vegetable rack and forgot about them for a few days.

When I remembered to check them I found that true-to-form they had all ripened at the same time. So what to do with them????

Firstly, I froze some. Did you know you can freeze avocados? Check out my post on how to freeze avocados to find out how to do this. Then I had some mashed up with plenty of salt and pepper on toast for breakfast. But I still had plenty left. So the question still remained. What to do with them????

Then I remembered an old recipe that I used to make in South Africa, where avocados were in plentiful supply – avocado and shrimp linguine, except we called it avocado and prawn linguine.

It’s a simple recipe, made by blending avocados with parmesan cheese, chilli flakes, lemon juice and olive oil to form a pesto. This is then mixed with garlic fried shrimp and tomatoes and served with a dish of freshly cooked linguine. The avocados make such a deliciously creamy sauce, without the need to add any cream.

Oh, and by the way, the photo’s really DO NOT do justice to this delicious dish. Have YOU ever tried to photograph a bowl of green linguine with a starving hubby impatiently waiting for his supper 🙂

What makes this avocado pasta dish so special?

There are so many reasons why this dish is so good.

• First of all, I think it’s the taste. The avocado makes the whole dish so creamy, but without using any cream, which means it’s healthy too.
• Avocado and shrimp pair so well together. I’m thinking prawn cocktail here. Who doesn’t love a bowl of juicy prawns mixed with avocado and covered in a delicious marie rose sauce?
• Any supper dish that is so easy to prepare is a winner in my book – and this dish is super-easy. You can have this on the table in just a few minutes more than it takes to cook the linguine.
• The sweet cherry tomatoes provide a touch of colour, but add a huge amount of extra taste. Garlic and tomatoes make an amazing combination, and coupled with parmesan cheese these add an fantastic depth of flavour.

Ingredients you will need

You really don’t need a lot of ingredients, and probably have all of these in your pantry or refrigerator anyway.

The quantities given are sufficient for 2 people, but you can easily scale this recipe up to cater for more people by doubling the ingredients.

Linguine – this is a flat spaghetti-type pasta, but you can use any pasta you prefer for this dish. Tagliatelle will work very well, and you could also use penne or even shell noodles. You should allow 55g or 2 ounces of linguine per person.

Avocado – you will need the equivalent of 1 cup of mashed avocado, which is about 2 medium-sized avocados. My avocados were really tiny and I used about 5 of them.

Shrimp (or prawns) – you will need 110g (or 4 ounces) of frozen pre-shelled shrimp per person. Make sure you get raw shrimp – pre-cooked shrimp is inclined to be rubbery once cooked in a recipe.

Cherry tomatoes – these add both colour and flavour to the dish. Try to get sweet cocktail tomatoes or mini plum tomatoes. Don’t use normal chopped tomatoes as these will turn mushy.

Garlic – you can use either fresh garlic cloves (finely minced) or chopped garlic from a jar.

Dried chilli flakes – this adds a little heat to the dish and goes so well with avocado (think guacamole!).

Lemon juice – adds a touch of tartness, and once again complements the avocado. You could substitute this with an equivalent amount of lime juice.

Parmesan cheese – helps thicken the sauce, and is also optionally used to sprinkle on top of the cooked avocado pasta dish.

Olive oil – this is mixed with the avocado, parmesan, lemon juice and chilli to form the base for the sauce.

Butter – used for frying the shrimp. Use unsalted butter if possible, and adjust the seasoning of the dish with salt and pepper.

How to make avocado and shrimp linguine

There are only 4 steps to make this easy avocado and shrimp pasta.

• Boil the linguine
• Mix the sauce ingredients
• Fry the shrimp
• Assemble

Boil the linguine

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to the boil and then add the linguine. Boil for the time indicated on the package – normally 8 to 10 minutes – then remove from the heat and drain. Reserve half a cup of the pasta water to thin down the sauce.

Make the sauce ingredients (image 1 above)

See further down the post for instructions on how to prepare an avocado.

Place the avocado, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice and dried chilli flakes in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Transfer to a dish and set aside.

Fry the shrimp (image 2 above)

Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the shrimp and garlic and fry until the shrimp turns pink, approximately 2 minutes per side.

While the shrimp is frying, cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Add them to the cooked shrimp and continue to cook until the tomatoes just start to soften.

Assemble (images 3 and 4 above)

Remove from the heat and stir in the blended avocado.

Add the drained pasta and stir through.

Return to the heat, then add half of the reserved pasta water and stir through. If the sauce is still too thick, stir in more water of the water until the sauce coats the linguine. You may not need all the water – you are looking for a consistency similar to thick soup.

Taste, and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if preferred.

Allow to heat until piping hot then sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

What can I serve with avocado and shrimp linguine?

This is quite a rich dish, so you will not need much by way of accompaniment.

I like to serve with slices of crunchy garlic bread and a fresh green salad on the side.

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How to remove the stone from an avocado

This is the easist way to cut an avocado and remove the stone (or pip).

• Cut the avocado in half by running a sharp knife around the outside, cutting through to the pip. Then twist to open.
• Cut away any visible brown pieces of avocado and discard.
• To remove the pip, hold the avocado in one hand and then (carefully) hit the pip sharply with a sharp knife so that the knife sticks into the pip.
• Twist the knife gently to remove the pip.
• Scoop the avocado from the skin using a tablespoon (not shown above).

Storage and advance preparation

I wouldn’t freeze this dish because it uses raw shrimp which has been previously frozen. Also the high water content of the sauce (from the tomatoes and pasta water) would cause the sauce to split on defrosting.

If you want to make this dish in advance, you could cook the pasta and store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

The shrimp, tomatoes and garlic can also be fried in advance and stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also store the reserved pasta water in the refrigerator in a screw top jar.

However, the avocado sauce should be prepared fresh on the day you intend to serve the avocado pasta, as avocado has a nasty habit of turning brown once exposed to air.

When you are ready to make the dish, just prepare the avocado sauce, then mix all the ingredients in a large frying pan and heat through until piping hot. Serve immediately.

Here are some other pasta recipes you may enjoy.

• Salmon and broccoli pasta in a creamy dill sauce
• Easy pasta pescatore
• Pad Thai noodles with chicken and shrimp
• Creamy seafood linguine with lobster
• Seafood stuffed pasta shells in a creamy cheesy sauce
• Creamy spaghetti carbonara

Avocado and shrimp linguine recipe

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