Cue the Italian music, and prepare for a cozy night in with a shrimp marinara recipe that’s savory, satisfying and delightfully simple. Our homemade sauce for shrimp comes together in your slow cooker and tastes like you’ve been tending to it all day. The marinara is a no-fuss, tomato-based sauce with aromatics like garlic and herbs. Its bright, straightforward flavor complements the tender shrimp, which are added near the end of cooking.

As a great alternative to a heavy, red meat-based Italian gravy, shrimp marinara makes for a delicious weeknight dish or a weekend spread. Just add crusty bread and a Caesar salad. One bite, and this pasta dish will surely make your list of favorite Italian recipes.

Ingredients for Shrimp Marinara

• Shrimp: Make sure your shrimp is fresh before you buy it. Avoid shrimp with a strong ammonia smell or shrimp that smells overly fishy. Pass on shrimp with shells that appear slimy or cloudy. Buying frozen shrimp is generally a safe bet as they are usually frozen immediately after harvesting, which preserves their fresh-from-the-sea flavor. Buy peeled and deveined shrimp to save time, or learn how to clean shrimp yourself.
• Tomatoes: Canned Italian diced tomatoes are often steam-packed fresh and include aromatics like basil, oregano and garlic. You can even use the best San Marzano tomatoes and dice them up yourself.
• Tomato paste: With its depth of umami flavor and thickening qualities, tomato paste adds richness to this slow-cooked sauce for shrimp.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic is key to any great tomato sauce. Its pungent raw flavor softens after a few hours in the slow cooker, so feel free to add another clove or two if you’re a garlic lover. Make garlic prep a breeze with our hacks for peeling garlic.
• Herbs: Parsley, oregano and basil are common herbs in Italian and Mediterranean cooking. This recipe uses a combination of fresh and dried. Fresh herbs are generally milder than their dried cousins, but you can usually use them interchangeably; our fresh-to-dried herb conversion guide can help.
• Seasonings: Traditional marinara seasonings are very simple. This recipe is no different, as it only uses salt and pepper. For the best results, use kosher salt, which has a clean flavor, and freshly cracked black pepper.
• Pasta: This recipe calls for easy-to-find spaghetti, but the sauce for shrimp would work over almost any pasta.
• Parmesan cheese: The sprinkle of cheese is totally optional but highly recommended. That nutty, salty finish on warm, tomato-y sauce is the stuff dinner dreams are made of.

Taste of Home