Creamy Tuscan Shrimp Over Rice: Quick & EASY Dinner Recipe

If you’re anything like me and my family, you’re busy af. On weeknights, we have dad and mom finishing their work day, kids scrambling to finish homework and extracurricular activities. So an involved and fancy dinner isn’t typically in the cards. We need fast and easy dinner ideas most days of the week. Otherwise, I’ll straight up lose my cookies. Recently, we ate at Bonefish Grill and fell in love with their “Saucy Shrimp” recipe. To which we decided to create our own copycat version. Learn how to make our quick and easy Creamy Tuscan Shrimp recipe here.

Time-Saving Prep Tips for Creamy Tuscan Shrimp:

Save yourself some time on this creamy tuscan shrimp recipe with a few of our recommendations:

• Purchase pre-peeled and deveined, tail-off shrimp
• Keep a jar of minced garlic handy (I know it doesn’t have the exact same potency as fresh garlic, but at least you’re saving yourself the extra time of peeling and mincing!)
• Buy a bag of sundried tomatoes, as opposed to the canned tomatoes in oil (WAY less mess and less clean-up!

How to Make Creamy Tuscan Shrimp Over Rice

The quality of ingredients you choose will determine the outcome of ANY dish, including this one. HOWEVER, I’ve found you can make Creamy Tuscan Shrimp on the cheap and it still tastes AMAZING. And my entire family claims it as one of their favorite easy weeknight dinner recipes. YES frozen shrimp from Walmart tastes good and works perfectly for this dish. YES you can cut corners and use minced garlic instead of fresh. If you want to use fresh garlic and seafood market, fresh-caught shrimp, you can do that too! It will just take you a little more time to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Shrimp – 1 1/2 lb. of medium to large, peeled and deveined (I prefer tail off but that’s up to you!)
• Sun dried tomatoes – 1/2 cup (we buy the bagged kind – less mess!)
• Heavy cream – 1/2 to 1 cup
• Garlic – 2 tsp minced (we use pre-minced garlic for quicker prep)
• Lime juice – 1 1/2 tsp (again, a pre-bottled lime juice saves on time)
• Sugar – 2 1/2 tsp
• Italian seasoning blend – 1/2 tsp
• Olive oil – 2 tsp
• Butter – 1/4 cup (one half of a stick)
• Rice OR Pasta – 2 cups cooked (we chose brown rice to make it healthier but you can do white rice OR put this over a thin spaghetti pasta or angel hair pasta)
• Salt to taste
• Feta cheese (crumbled)
• Kalamata olives (1/2 cup or more depending on your preference)

First, Melt the Butter and Oil to Start Your Tuscan Shrimp

Add your fats to a medium-sized skillet – both the oil and butter until the butter melts down. Side note – I like to have all of my ingredients for Tuscan Shrimp nearby for quick access. IMPORTANT: I like to start cooking my rice or pasta beforehand. You can always set the rice or pasta aside until the Tuscan Shrimp are ready.

Next, Add Garlic

Here’s where the pre-minced garlic saves on time. Literally just plop a spoonful into the pan and let it cook in the oil and butter until fragrant. I’ve found this is just about 30 seconds to a minute. Fresh garlic will be more fragrant, but again, pre-minced will be QUICKER to prepare.

Then, Add More

Now that you have your garlic softened and fragrant, it’s time to your sun dried tomatoes, lime juice, italian seasoning and sugar. Cook until the sugar has melted down, about a minute or so.

Cook Your Shrimp

Now we have our base ready, so let’s add our shrimp. Spread your shrimp out across the skillet in one layer to allow even cooking. I like to turn the heat up at this point to a medium-high and cook the shrimp about 1 1/2 minutes each side (three to four minutes TOTAL). Then remove from heat, once shrimp are no longer translucent and are a nice pink color. Don’t go longer than 4 minutes as you don’t want to overcook the shrimp. I also like to add a bit of salt at this point (don’t overdo the salt though! A small pinch works well. You want the flavors of the tomatoes and italian seasoning to be the star of this Tuscan Shrimp recipe).

Lastly, Pour in the Cream

You’ve removed your Tuscan Shrimp from heat. So your last step is to add the heavy cream. Originally, I used 1/4 cup of cream. But once I mixed it in, I found it wasn’t creamy enough and didn’t have enough juice to it. So I added 1/4 cup more and that seems to be the perfect amount. I recommend at least 1/2 cup of heavy cream (or more if you want to have more liquid to submerge pasta/rice). Stir in the cream and evenly coat all of your shrimp. Taste. Add a bit more salt, if you feel it’s necessary. THEN pour over brown or white rice OR pasta of your choice! Enjoy!

Serve It!

We typically choose to pour this Tuscan Shrimp and its juices directly over a bed of rice, but you might prefer pasta instead. If you go the pasta route, I recommend adding a little more cream to the last step so you have enough juices to evenly coat your pasta. I also recommend using a thinner pasta noodle like thin spaghetti or angel hair.

What Wine Pairs Well with Tuscan Shrimp?

If you’re in desperate need of a glass of wine, we have a few suggestions that pair well with this Tuscan Shrimp recipe:

• ANY dry, white wine
• Prophecy’s Butter Chardonnay
• Witching Hour Chardonnay White Wine
• Bread & Butter Chardonnay White Wine
• Fresh Vine Wine’s Pinot Noir

Can you drink a red wine with it? Sure. And if you intend to go that route, we recommend a younger red wine with tannins like Tempranillo or a young left bank Bordeaux. For the adults, of course!