This Creamy Dijon Alfredo Pasta with shrimp is perfect for a family dinner or an at-home date night!
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. What are your plans? I’m planning to help my kids make a few dozen Valentine’s for school, pack heart-shaped PB&J in lunch boxes, hopefully be the recipient of some candy, and have a date night in with my husband after the kids are in bed. (That last part is pretty much the story of every night at our house.)
If having dinner at home is in your plans too, this pasta with a creamy dijon sauce would be a perfect meal. Not to make it sound less romantic, but this recipe used some leftover ingredients from other recent dinners. Remember the chive and onion cream cheese from the Steak Pinwheels and the rest of the box of pasta from the Creamy Pesto Chicken Soup? Those got put to good use in this tasty shrimp pasta dish. There is nothing more romantic than making good use of leftovers if you ask me.
I need to tell you about the dijon mustard in this recipe. I was a bit worried while I was cooking it because the mustard smelled pretty strong. I was afraid it was going to taste pretty strong too. Fortunately, the aroma was more potent than the flavor, and the finished dish had just a hint of dijon. I thought I should warn you about that so you don’t have to worry too! Whether you are flying solo, having dinner with your sweetie, or having a dinner date with the whole family, this creamy dijon alfredo pasta will fit right in!
Print Creamy Dijon Alfredo Pasta with Shrimp
This satisfying pasta dish with a hint of dijon flavor is perfect for a family dinner or stay-home date night!
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 12–14 oz. bite-sized pasta
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1 yellow or orange bell pepper seeded and diced
- 1 large zucchini sliced into 1/4” thick half circles
- 1 tbsp. flour
- 1 1/2 c. milk
- 1 tbsp. dijon mustard
- 1/3 c. onion and chive cream cheese
- 1 pound raw peeled shrimp (around 31-40 per lb. size)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions, and drain.
- While pasta cooks, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, and saute until browning and tender, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, and saute 2 minutes longer. (It’s OK that zucchini is still pretty raw at this point.)
- Reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle flour over vegetables, and stir to coat. Slowly add milk about 1/2 c. at a time, stirring until sauce is smooth before adding more. When all milk is added, bring sauce to a simmer, stirring often.
- Stir in mustard and cream cheese, and return to a simmer. Add shrimp, and simmer, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until shrimp are uniformly pink and C-shaped.
- Turn off heat, and stir in hot, cooked pasta. Serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 3
- Cook Time: 25
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Pasta
You’ll also love these easy, date-worthy pasta recipes:
colette says
This may have to be my V-day dinner for the hubs tonight. He loves shimp and anything creamy and this looks amazing! #sitsblogging
Andi says
Hi, Colette! Thanks so much for your nice comment. Did you end up making this or something else for your Valentine’s dinner? I hope you had a nice evening whatever you ate!
Meegan Littlefield says
Your site immediately made me hungry, beautiful food photography, I can’t wait to try a few of your recipes. Check this link over here if you like!
SITS LOVE
~Meegan
Andi says
That is so sweet of you to say, Meegan. Thank you! It’s great to meet you :)
Meg @ The Housewife in Training Files says
What is it about shrimp and pasta that makes it so elegant?! This recipe looks fantastic! Glad I stumbled upon your site from SITS Girls!
Andi says
Hi, Meg. You are right that shrimp suddenly makes a pasta seem fancier than chicken even if the recipe is the same otherwise! I grew up on the coast of Mississippi where shrimp are just about everywhere, so I still use them a lot. Thanks so much for your visit. It’s great to meet you!
Kelly says
We are staying in for Valentine’s Day too – I think that’s so cute that you are making heart-shaped sandwiches for your kids :) This pasta looks fantastic Andy and the Dijon and cream cheese in the sauce sound wonderful!
Andi says
Thank you, Kelly! I don’t have many shaped cookie cutters, but a heart is one of them. I always live it up with lunches on Valentine’s Day so I can use it ;) Have a happy day tomorrow!
Elle says
This looks so delicious! I am definitely putting this recipe in my PepperPlate recipe organizer! Thanks for sharing!
Coming from the Comment Love Tribe
-Elle
Andi says
Thank you, Elle! I will have to go look up PepperPlate because I haven’t heard of that. Thanks so much for stopping by :)
Elle says
If you love to store recipes, you’ll adore Pepper Plate. I have it on both my Kindle Fire and my Windows Phone. It allows you to add any recipe or import them from your computer and then helps organize meal planning. It’s so amazing :)
Zainab @ Blahik Baker says
Your plans for Friday night are very similar to mine- stay home and have a date night with the husband. Except the lack of cute kids to make heart shaped samdwiches for lol! This pasta looks delicious!! I love Dijon mustard and the way you used it in the sauce :)
Andi says
Thanks, Zainab! I hope you have a nice Valentine’s Day. What are you going to eat for dinner? I think it’s going to be steak for us.