Skinny Shrimp Alfredo Pasta Bake
An unbelievably cheesy, creamy lightened-up pasta bake that you can easily make ahead of time. Just pop it right in the oven before serving!
Seafood alfredo was a huge favorite of mine growing up. It was the only kind of pasta I would eat, no matter which Italian restaurant we were in. All I needed was that “white pasta” and those warm bread rolls at the center of the table, and I was the happiest kid ever.
But since I don’t have that fast metabolism I had as a kid, this skinny version fits in perfectly. Best of all, taste is not compromised at all in this lightened-up version. TRUST.
It’s just as creamy and cheesy as the original, and you can even make it ahead of time. All you have to do is pop it right in the oven and dinner will be on the table in just 15 minutes. Boom.
Skinny Shrimp Alfredo Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 ounces whole wheat penne pasta
- 1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes, drained
- ½ cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the alfredo sauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 6-ounce can 2% evaporated milk
- 1 ounce light cream cheese
- ¼ cup chicken broth, or more, to taste
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To make the alfredo sauce, melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in cream cheese and chicken broth until smooth, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add more chicken broth as needed until desired consistency is reached.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
- Place shrimp onto the prepared baking sheet. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste, and gently toss to combine. Place into oven and roast just until pink, firm and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, combine shrimp, pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, red pepper flakes and alfredo sauce. Add pasta mixture to prepared baking dish and top with Parmesan.
- Place into oven and bake until golden brown and cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Made this for supper tonight. I added more cheese than it called for. It was a big hit. I will definitely make this again. Thanks!
I made this tonight for dinner for my hubs and me. The only thing I changed was to add saute’d mushroom slices and some frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. It was delicious and there’s enough leftover for dinner tomorrow and possibly another meal. It was a huge success!
This recipe is awesome! I made just a couple tweaks, like using jar Classico Alfredo Sauce (use a roasted garlic one, yum), instead of making it and I cut back on the tomatoes because my boys arnt huge fans of them, but used just enough so you get that slight tomatoes/rose flavor. Most online recipes arn’t what they claim and need tons of tweaking…this one does not!! Delicious in every way! Go on try it!!!
Oops! No Cream cheese-used Greek yogurt instead…used red lentil pasta jnstead of whole wheat and used Parmesan and Romano blend instead of Parmesan cheese. Oh and no diced tomatoes-cut up stewed tomatoes. Delicious still.
I made this as directed with Dreamfields pasta, low sodium “no chicken” broth and no salt added tomatoes to try to lower the sodium content and make it veggie (pescetarian, at least). It was fantastic! My family loved it and immediately decided it should be part of the regular rotation. This including a husband who does not take to change very easily.
I’m sorry but this is a terrible recipe and ruined my Xmas eve dinner. I’m an experienced cook and followed your recipe exactly. I found there just wasn’t enough sauce for the amount of pasta and even adding some additional store bought Alfredo sauce didn’t help. It was bland and dry and we ended up picking out the shrimp and leaving the pasta. I have a feeling the positive reviews are from people who haven’t actually made it. I’m a good cook and this was not good at all.
Anne, I’m sorry this recipe did not turn out for you. I understand that you are a “good cook” but mixing my recipe with store-bought alfredo sauce will completely alter the recipe. There are also over a hundred comments here with positive reviews from readers who have tried the recipe exactly as written. Perhaps this recipe is just not meant for you.
I have made this recipe a few times and it is always a hit, I even made it for a bunch of girlfriends and they all loved it. I think for more sauce you could try to put in more chicken stock until you have the amount you want. I would say 3/4 to 1 cup of chicken stock might help yield more sauce. Another thing I usually do is season each time you add something to the sauce and make sure you cook that flour flavor out of the roux, usually at least 2 minutes. Season that, season again when you add milk, season again when you add chicken stock. Keep adding stock and milk until you have the amount of sauce you want and keep trying the sauce as you go to adjust for flavor. This really is a great recipe!
This is absolutely delicious!! I doubled the recipe and it turned out fantastic! Love the heat from the red pepper flakes. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thank you so much for this recipe! It is stellar. Everyone in my family loved it 🙂
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing with us, Audrey!
I made this last night and it was a hit! So delicious. I left out the tomatoes and added spinach and mushrooms. So good!!
Great substitutions, Ashley! Sounds delicious.
Would same amount (14 oz) fresh diced tomatoes work just as well?
Yes, absolutely.
Tasty! We saved on clean-up by first sauteing the shrimp in the nonstick pan in the 2 tablespoons of butter; removed the shrimp to a platter, leaving the butter in the pan. Since I added about 6oz of sliced mushrooms, I sauteed them in the same pan and, without the juices, removed them to the shrimp platter. Then I followed the recipe from the start, adding the garlic, etc. (added a bit more butter). Saving on pans/clean up again, I added everything back to the nonstick skillet where I started the shrimp. This left only the pasta pan and the skillet for cleaning. And since we had leftovers, the casserole dish is covered and in the fridge. We enjoyed this recipe and will make it again – thanks for sharing!
Great meal, skipped the tomatoes, sauteed some mushrooms until golden, removed, then the garlic. Added broccoli to the pasta during last minute of the cooking time. Deeeelish!!!!!
I have tried several of your recipes. Some have been huge hits and others not so much. But, for the most part everything recipe I have tried has been delicious. I just wanted to say thank you for your recipes. I also read where you have a cook book coming out. When will it be available and will it be in book stores or available on your site. Making your Skinny Shrimp Alfredo for supper tonight. Can’t wait after reading all the rave reviews.
My cookbook is available on Amazon.com. 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/Damn-Delicious-Super-Easy-Recipes/dp/084874585X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517434298&sr=8-1&keywords=damn+delicious
Just made this today, damn good, boyfriend says this is a keeper! Loved the red pepper flakes as a spice up!!
Yum! I already had an open jar of Bertolli Alfredo Sauce and I omitted the red pepper flakes, but this was really good! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love this recipe! I have made it twice now and whenever I think of either pasta or shrimp I find myself craving this dish. It’s also very easy to make. <3<3<3
This recipe is a keeper! So good. I cheated a bit and used a commercial Alfredo sauce but cut it with a bit of chicken stock. Also added a tsp or so of Italian seasoning and the parsley of course. We just loved it.
I made this last night and not to be disrespectful in any way, it turned out to be the worst meal I have ever made. With the utmost sincerity and kindness, I do not recommend this recipe. Everything is great besides the combination of the tomatoes mixed with the alfredo sauce. I feel like anybody with culinary knowledge should know not to mix tomatoes (a red sauce) with alfredo (a white sauce). Either pick red sauce or white sauce. The combination of the two when put in the oven tasted like burnt rubber with a foul fishy odor from the shrimp. I am very upset I spent a decent amount of time after not eating all day to make this. I am even more upset that I wasted a whole dinner serving of food that had to go straight in the trash. I am upset I wasted delicious ingredients when there are others in the world going through starvation. My whole family tried to eat it to a point of regurgitation. If you see this, please please change the recipe where it says “Put either tomatoes or alfredo sauce. Do not combine these two ingredients.” Do not make the same mistake I did and waste time, money, and precious food or ruin your dinner.
I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see from the comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. But I really appreciate your honesty and feedback.
I made this a double recipe and all 6 of us loved it !!? Maybe you’re not a good cook or probably substituted inferior ingredients. And I say this with all sincerity.
I just spent half of my night saving recipes. My goodness woman I am going to weigh 300 lbs by the time I am a quarter of the way through these!!!! Please let me know what kind of a dog is Butters? Cutest dog and very photogenic! Butters looks so sweet and beautiful.
Awwwwww, thank you! Butters is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
I made this last night and it was SO good! I used frozen shrimp and just did the initial cook at 400 for a couple minutes longer than the recipe stated. And I used some greek yogurt instead of cream cheese but otherwise followed the recipe. I’m pretty excited to eat my leftovers for lunch (and dinner!!)!