Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta with Sausage
A spicy and creamy Cajun pasta dish with blackened shrimp and andouille sausage.
Do you have a dish that you always order at a favorite restaurant? I do, and it's Creole Pasta at this lovely little bistro in our new neighborhood. I crave it and I wish I could try something else from the menu, but I just can't. Obsessed and inspired, I set out to make something like it at home. It took a few tries, but I came up with a creamy cajun shrimp and sausage pasta dish that can compete ~ alleluia.
I love cajun spices or creole seasonings, both terms seem to be used interchangeably, but they are actually a little different. I'm no expert but, simply put, some label Creole food as "city food" and Cajun as "country food". I'm just gonna go with cajun here, and leave the nuanced differences to others.
I'm not from St. Louis ~ I'm a Chicago girl, through and through ~ but after living here for almost 14 years, I would definitely say St. Louis is more southern than midwestern.
There's a huge French influence here and St. Louis is home to the largest Mardi Gras celebration outside of New Orleans. Just a little observation I thought I'd share. ?
This dish has such great flavor and heat, neither of which overwhelms the other. The sauce is creamy and decadent and tossed with fettuccine, blackened shrimp and andouille sausage. Cajun spices are great on shrimp, seared or "blackened" for a few minutes so they're not overcooked and rubbery.
Andouille is a smoked sausage full of wonderful Louisiana cajun spices. The combination of shrimp and andouille ~ a perfect match. And lately, I've been making this with bowtie pasta, I like the leftovers with bowties, a little easier to reheat.
This pasta dish comes together easily if you have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go, mise en place. It's perfect for a weeknight dinner or entertaining. Creamy cajun pasta with blackened shrimp and andouille sausage ~ not gonna lie, I licked my plate and then the pan, before Meathead could beat me to it! ~ Kelly
If you have a love of Cajun spiced southern dishes, then try these recipes, too:
- Creamy Cajun Pork Chops
- Cajun Brown Sugar Salmon
- Skillet Cajun Chicken Thighs
- Cajun Southern Fried Corn
- Cajun Macaroni Salad
- Southern Fried Okra with Rémoulade Sauce
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Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta with Sausage
Ingredients
- ½ pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
- 1 andouille sausage, about ½ pound, sliced into rounds
- 1 - 2 tablespoons cajun/creole spice mix, adjust to your spice/heat level
- Olive oil
- ½ medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
- ½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon cajun/creole spice mix
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 - 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (1 large or 2 small)
- ½ cup crushed tomatoes
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ¾ cup heavy cream, or ½ & ½ (I prefer heavy cream!!)
- 12 ounces fettuccine or farfalle (bowties)
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper
- Grated Parmesan and chopped parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to boil for pasta. Toss shrimp with 1 - 2 tablespoons of cajun seasoning and coat well. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and drizzle bottom of pan with olive oil. Add shrimp and cook for 2 minutes or so until starting to curl. Flip shrimp over and cook another minute or two and then remove to a plate and set aside. Drizzle pan with a little more olive oil, add sausage and brown until nicely caramelized, about 4 - 5 minutes. Remove to plate, set aside.
- Add pasta to salted boiling water and cook until al dente, a minute less than package instructions.
- Lower heat to medium and add another good drizzle of olive oil to the pan, add the onion, red bell pepper, thyme, smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning, brown sugar and a generous pinch of salt. Sauté until onion and pepper have softened a bit, scraping up any browned bits that you can. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add crushed tomatoes, chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan, simmer a couple minutes. Add cream and stir to combine, bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add cooked pasta and andouille sausage and stir to combine and heat through, 2 - 3 minutes. Add more chicken broth or cream if it seems dry or you'd like more sauce (I added ¼ cup of each). Salt and pepper to taste and then lastly, add blackened shrimp and combine, or place shrimp on top of pasta. Sprinkle with some more freshly cracked black pepper, grated Parmesan and chopped parsley. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
*Inspired by Immaculate Bites and The Flavor Bender and, of course, Roux Royale ~ St. Charles, Missouri
So delicious!! My husband said it was restaurant quality! Thank you for sharing!! Will most definitely make again!!
My husband says the same thing!
Hubby loved it!! Easy to follow recipe, and great results. Will definitely make this again. Thanks!
I made this for my new boyfriend‘s birthday and it was a huge hit! One of the best voodoo pasta recipes I’ve ever had. I made it with a heavier Casarecche pasta, and I only used a little over 1 Tbs total of Zataran’s Creole Seasoning. I also did a full pound of shrimp. Found the sauce wouldn’t thicken up even though I used heavy whipping cream, so I had to use a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it up. My guy likes things really spicy but with the andouille sausage, it was quite spicy enough!
Fabulous recipe – – I will be making this over and over again!
Thanks so much Kimberly for the glowing feedback! It's one of our favorite dishes, my husband loves the sauce so I tend to up the liquid ingredients and make extra. I've never had to thicken it, but good to know cornstarch worked for you.
Very good! It definitely helps to have all components ready to go!
Always!! Glad you liked it.
Made this tonight as I had frozen gulf shrimp and farmers market beef andouille sausage at my disposal. My husband and his family are Cajun so I thought I'd give this recipe a whirl, and it did not disappoint! Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Oh, I subbed milk for heavy cream and the sauce was still finger lickin' good!
Whatever works with what you have on hand, so glad you liked it! Thanks for the sweet comment.
I made this an only changed two things. I added 1/2 a cup of white wine instead of chicken broth. I did that because I forgot to heat up the water for the bullion. Didnt have any andoullie sausage( live in an area where it sells out fast)so I used smoke jalapeno deer sauage It was delicious! Next time I will make the recipe as is! Thanks so much.
6 stars!
I am eating this right now and it is delicious! Easy to make and full of flavor. I have a nice crusty loaf of garlic bread and a glass of merlot with it. Thanks, a fantastic recipe!
Didn't change a thing!
Thanks so much, it's one of our favorites!
Added some spinach and mushrooms and skipped the shrimp. One of our favorite recipes.
Even with quarantine substitutions (ie frozen shrimp, crumbly hot Italian sausage over andouille, stewed tomatoes, and half-n-half over heavy cream), this recipe is the jam. Subbed penne, cuz again, that was on the shelf, and nabbed compliments aplenty from the rest of the fam. Tip: mix up your own Cajun seasoning (used an Allrecipes mix for “creole seasoning blend” here and results did not disappoint). Yeah— great recipe for a cravings-inducing pasta that’s even better the next day. Get it!
I've made it several times the past few months. Agreed, the leftovers are even better!
This recipe was outstanding!! Thank you so much, I’ll definitely be making this again!
It's one of our very favorites around here, everyone loves it!
I’m about to make this again. The first time I made it, I added chicken too. It’s delicious. My son took the leftovers for his lunch for three days. He loved it too.
It's so dang good!
We just made this last night for date night. It was delicious!! We used bow tie pasta and it was perfect! Thank you 🙂
Glad to hear you liked it, the bowties are my favorite pasta shape for this recipe now, too. Thanks for the feedback!
I’ve tried this recipe before and LOVED IT!!! I want to make it for my sister but she is lactose intolerant so heavy cream upsets her stomach, how could I substitute heavy cream for almond or oat milk? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
My daughter doesn't like dairy and I've yet to adjust for her. Maybe try oat milk, it's very thick and creamy and might make a good substitute for the heavy cream. Coconut milk often is a good substitute but I'm not sure about the taste.
I can’t believe how good this looks. Definitely trying this weekend.