Tagliatelle with Shrimp, Cream and Pesto | Tagliatelle con Gamberi, Crema e Pesto

Sep 22

11 min read

Tagliatelle con Gamberi, Crema e Pesto (Italian Tagliatelle with Shrimp, Cream and Pesto)

This is a plate of egg tagliatelle coated in a shrimp scented cream, with a spoonful of raw basil pesto folded through off the heat at the very last second. It is the kind of dish that goes wrong in exactly one way: the pesto is allowed to cook, the basil turns grey and bitter, and what should taste of a Ligurian summer tastes of boiled herbs. Everything in this recipe is organised around preventing that.

The cream is not the point either, and there is less of it here than in most restaurant versions. The body of the sauce comes from a quick reduction made with the shrimp heads and shells, from the starch in the pasta water, and from the fat in the pesto itself. Cream is there to carry those flavours and to give the sauce something to cling to, not to smother the shellfish.

Yield: 4 servings. Prep: 30 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes. Total: about 55 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Liguria and the Tyrrhenian coast, with Emilian pasta.

The Story

Two of the three elements on this plate have a long documented history and the third does not, which is worth saying plainly. Tagliatelle are Emilian. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposited a golden tagliatella at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1972, fixing the correct width at 8 millimetres cooked, and the familiar story about a cook inventing them in 1487 in imitation of the hair of Lucrezia Borgia was made up in the nineteen twenties by the illustrator Augusto Majani. The pasta is far older than the tale.

Pesto is Genoese and first appears in recognisable form in La Cuciniera Genovese by Giovanni Battista Ratto in 1863, though a garlic and herb pounding tradition ran along that coast for centuries before. The basil that matters is the small leafed Genovese variety grown on the terraces above Pra, which has none of the mint note larger leafed basil develops. It is pounded with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, a sheep cheese and Ligurian olive oil, and it is never heated.

The combination of shrimp, cream and pesto, on the other hand, belongs to the nineteen seventies and eighties, when cream arrived in Italian restaurant kitchens in quantity and the trattorie of the Riviera di Levante began putting it with the local red shrimp. Purists dislike it. It has earned its place on that coast nonetheless, because the sweetness of the shrimp and the sharp green of the basil need something in the middle to hold them together, and dairy does that better than oil alone.

Ingredients

For the pasta

Fresh egg tagliatelle, 14 oz (400 g), or 12 oz (340 g) dried
Water, 5 quarts (4.7 litres)
Coarse sea salt, 2 tbsp (35 g)

For the pesto

Genovese basil leaves, small, 2 cups packed (50 g)
Pine nuts, 2 tbsp (20 g)
Garlic clove, small, 1
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 1/3 cup (30 g)
Pecorino Fiore Sardo, finely grated, 2 tbsp (12 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, mild, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Coarse sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)

For the shrimp and the sauce

Raw shrimp, shell on, heads on if possible, 1 1/4 lb (570 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Shallot, finely minced, 1
Garlic clove, lightly crushed, 1
Dry white wine, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Heavy cream, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste

For finishing

Pine nuts, toasted, 1 tbsp (10 g)
Basil leaves, small, 8 to 12
Lemon zest, finely grated, a little
Extra virgin olive oil, a few drops per plate

Preparation

Step 1

Clean the shrimp and keep everything. Pull the heads off and set them aside, then peel the tails, keeping the shells. Run a knife down the back of each tail and lift out the dark intestinal tract. Cut the larger shrimp in half lengthways and leave the small ones whole, so every piece cooks in the same time. Cover the tails and refrigerate them. The heads and shells are not waste: they hold most of the shellfish flavour here, and discarding them leaves the sauce built on cream alone.

Step 2

Make the shrimp reduction. Warm 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the heads and shells and press them hard with the back of a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes, until they turn deep coral and the coral juices run out of the heads. Pour in the white wine, let it bubble away almost entirely, then add 1 cup (240 ml) of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing firmly, and return the liquid to the pan. Reduce it to about 1/3 cup (80 ml) of concentrated shellfish stock.

Step 3

Pound the pesto. Put the salt, the garlic and the pine nuts in a marble mortar and work them to a paste with the pestle. Add the basil a handful at a time and grind with a rotating motion against the wall of the mortar rather than pounding straight down, which bruises the leaves and drives out the bitter compounds instead of the aromatic ones. When the basil is a smooth green cream, work in both cheeses, then trickle in the olive oil while stirring. Cover the surface with a film of oil and keep it at room temperature, never in the refrigerator, where it goes dull.

Step 4

Set the pasta water and salt it properly. Bring 5 quarts (4.7 litres) of water to a rolling boil in a tall pot and add 2 tablespoons of coarse salt, roughly 7 grams per litre. That is deliberately less than the usual 10, because the reduction and both cheeses bring salt of their own and the sauce reduces further in the pan. Taste the water: clearly seasoned, not aggressive.

Step 5

Build the cream base. Wipe out a wide sauté pan, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and the butter over low heat, then sweat the minced shallot with the crushed garlic clove for about 4 minutes without any colour at all. Remove the garlic. Pour in the shrimp reduction, let it bubble for a few seconds, then add the cream and bring it to the barest simmer. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until it lightly coats a spoon and season it carefully. This base can wait a few minutes off the heat while the pasta cooks.

Step 6

Cook the tagliatelle and sear the shrimp. Drop the tagliatelle into the boiling water and stir once. Fresh egg tagliatelle need 2 to 3 minutes, dried need about 2 minutes less than the packet states, and the target in both cases is firm rather than soft, since the pasta finishes cooking in the sauce. While it cooks, bring the cream base back to a simmer, slide in the shrimp in one layer and cook them for 60 to 90 seconds only, turning once. They are done the moment they lose their translucency at the thickest point.

Step 7

Save the water and toss. Before draining, lift out 1 cup (240 ml) of the cloudy cooking water, which is the starch that will bind this sauce. Drain the tagliatelle while they are still noticeably firm and add them straight to the pan with the shrimp and cream. Raise the heat slightly and toss for 45 to 60 seconds, adding the pasta water two tablespoons at a time and shaking the pan so the starch, the cream and the shellfish fat emulsify into a sauce that clings to every ribbon rather than pooling at the bottom.

Step 8

Fold in the pesto off the heat. Take the pan completely off the burner and wait about 20 seconds so it stops bubbling, then add 4 tablespoons of the pesto and toss hard for another 20 seconds. Loosen it with a last splash of pasta water if it looks tight. The sauce should be pale green and glossy, and it must never boil again after the pesto goes in. Taste for salt one final time and serve within a minute, because this dish does not wait.

Plating

Warm the bowls to about 130°F (55°C), no hotter. A very hot bowl carries on cooking the basil and dulls the colour within a minute, while a cold bowl makes the cream set and the pasta clump. Shallow wide bowls work better than deep ones because they let the ribbons lie in a loose nest instead of compacting.

Lift the tagliatelle with a carving fork and a ladle, twisting them into a loose coil in each bowl and letting the ribbons fall naturally rather than pressing them down. Arrange the shrimp on top and around the nest, where they can be seen rather than buried. Spoon any sauce left in the pan over the coil.

Finish with a few toasted pine nuts, two or three small basil leaves, the smallest grating of lemon zest and a few drops of olive oil. No extra cheese at the table, and no chopped parsley.

Professional Technique

The defining technique is that the pesto is a finishing element, not a cooking one. Basil contains volatile aromatics that evaporate above roughly 140°F (60°C), and its polyphenol oxidase enzymes darken the leaf as soon as bruised tissue meets heat and air. Fold pesto into a simmering pan and within thirty seconds the sauce is khaki and faintly bitter. Off the heat, into a sauce that has stopped bubbling, the same spoonful stays green and smells of the mortar. This single decision separates a good version from every bad one.

The second is the shrimp shell reduction, which is what makes the sauce taste of shellfish rather than of dairy. Shrimp heads carry the hepatopancreas, the source of almost all the deep sweet shellfish flavour, and pressing them in hot oil extracts it along with the carotenoid pigments that colour the sauce. Ten minutes of simmering and a hard reduction turn a handful of debris into concentrated stock, which is why this recipe needs only half a cup of cream where a shortcut version needs twice that.

Texture and Moisture Control

Egg tagliatelle are porous and absorb liquid fast, so they must leave the water genuinely firm. Fresh ribbons that are al dente in the pot are already soft by the time they are tossed, and the sauce has no grip on them. Drain them a good thirty seconds early, and remember that the starchy water added during the toss keeps cooking them in the pan. The correct point at the table is a ribbon that folds without breaking and still has some resistance in the middle.

The sauce itself is an emulsion of cream, shellfish fat, olive oil from the pesto and starch from the pasta water, and starch is the element that holds it. Use well clouded water from a pot that was not over filled, add it in small amounts, and keep the pan moving so mechanical agitation does the binding. If the sauce breaks and looks oily, take it off the heat and toss in a tablespoon of cold pasta water, which usually brings it back.

Shrimp go from tender to rubbery in about thirty seconds. They are cooked when the flesh has just turned opaque and the tail curls into a loose C rather than a tight O. Since they sit in hot sauce for another minute while the pasta is tossed, pull them early.

Professional Mise en Place

This dish takes four minutes from the moment the pasta goes in, so everything else is finished and standing by before the water boils.

Equipment and tools

Marble mortar and wooden pestle, or a food processor with a chilled bowl
Tall pasta pot and a wide low sided sauté pan for the toss
Small saucepan and a fine mesh sieve for the shrimp reduction
Carving fork and ladle for lifting and twisting the ribbons

Prepared ahead

Shrimp peeled, deveined and refrigerated, shells and heads kept separately
Shrimp reduction made and strained, up to 1 day ahead
Pesto pounded on the day, covered with oil at room temperature
Cheeses grated, pine nuts toasted, basil leaves picked for the garnish

Service setup

Pasta water at a rolling boil, salted and tasted
Cream base finished and held just off the heat
Shrimp laid out on a tray within reach of the pan
Bowls warming to 130°F (55°C), pesto and garnishes beside the stove

Chef Tips

Buy shrimp with the heads on even if it means paying for weight you will not eat. The heads are where the sauce comes from, and a version built on peeled frozen tails tastes of cream and nothing else. Red shrimp from the Ligurian or Sicilian coast are ideal.

If you use a food processor for the pesto, chill the bowl and blade in the freezer for ten minutes first and pulse rather than run it. The friction of a spinning blade heats the basil and starts the same oxidation that cooking does, which is why mortar pesto stays greener for longer.

Hold back one tablespoon of the pesto and stir it in at the very last moment, after the pan has been off the heat for half a minute. The first addition seasons the sauce and the second one restores the raw aroma that even residual warmth takes off. It is a small trick and it is noticeable.

Do not let the pasta water go too salty. The pesto carries two salted cheeses and the reduction carries concentrated shellfish, and the most common fault in this dish is not a missing flavour but a plate that is simply too salty to eat.

Common Mistakes

Cooking the pesto in the sauce. The basil oxidises, the colour turns grey green and a bitter note appears that cannot be corrected. Take the pan right off the heat and let it stop bubbling before the pesto goes anywhere near it.

Throwing away the shrimp heads and shells. Without the reduction the sauce has no shellfish flavour of its own and turns into plain cream with shrimp sitting in it. Five minutes of pressing and ten of simmering do more for this plate than any other step.

Overcooking the shrimp. Sixty to ninety seconds is the whole cooking time, and they continue to firm up in the hot sauce afterwards. A shrimp curled into a tight ring has already gone rubbery.

Draining the pasta without saving the water. The starch in that water binds cream, oil and shellfish fat into a sauce. Poured down the sink, it leaves a thin sauce that slides off the ribbons.

Adding too much cream. Half a cup for four people is enough because the shellfish reduction and the pesto already carry fat and body. Double it and the dish loses the sharp green edge that makes it worth eating.

Wine Pairing

Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato DOC: The most natural match on the list, grown on the same coast as the basil. Pigato has a herbal, almost sage like aromatic edge that meets the pesto head on instead of standing aside from it, plus enough saline grip and body to handle the cream. Drink it young and cool, around 50°F (10°C).

Cinque Terre DOC: Bosco with Albarola and Vermentino, from terraces cut into cliffs above the sea, and a wine built for shellfish. It is lean, briny and lightly bitter on the finish, which cuts the dairy cleanly and echoes the pine nut. Choose it when you want the shrimp rather than the pesto to lead the plate.

Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: Grown on decomposed granite in northern Sardinia, this is the firmest and most mineral of the Vermentino family. Its citrus acidity slices through the cream while the faint almond bitterness on the finish sits comfortably beside the basil and the Pecorino in the pesto. A good bottle has real weight without oak.

Lugana DOC: The choice when the sauce is on the richer side. Turbiana from the southern shore of Lake Garda gives a broad textured white with white peach and a saline close, and its softer acidity flatters the sweetness of the shrimp rather than fighting it. Serve it a little warmer, around 54°F (12°C).

Franciacorta DOCG: The sparkling answer, and a very good one for a cream sauce. Fine persistent bubbles scrub dairy fat off the palate between forkfuls, while the bread and hazelnut notes from time on the lees run alongside the toasted pine nuts. A brut with low dosage keeps the plate from tipping sweet.

Storage & Reheating

The assembled dish does not keep and should not be made ahead. The components do. Pesto holds 4 days refrigerated in a small jar sealed under a layer of olive oil, and freezes for 3 months in an ice cube tray, though the cheeses are better added after thawing. The shrimp reduction keeps 2 days refrigerated and freezes for 2 months.

Leftover finished pasta keeps 1 day refrigerated in a sealed container, no more, because cooked shrimp deteriorate quickly and the tagliatelle continue to absorb sauce. Reheat it in a wide pan over low heat with 2 tablespoons of milk or water, tossing constantly, and stop the moment it is warm through. A microwave overcooks the shrimp and splits the cream, and a hot reheat destroys what is left of the basil. Never freeze the finished dish.

Nutrition

Per serving, based on 4 servings:

Calories: 790 kcal
Total Fat: 42 g
Saturated Fat: 13 g
Trans Fat: 0.3 g
Unsaturated Fat: 27 g
Cholesterol: 260 mg
Sodium: 890 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 65 g
Fiber: 4 g
Total Sugars: 4 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 40 g
Lactose: 2.1 g
Principal micronutrients: selenium, iodine, vitamin B12, calcium, vitamin E, phosphorus