One-Pot Lemon Asparagus Pasta with Shrimp
Pasta cooked directly in broth with lemon, garlic and white wine, so the starch that normally washes down the drain becomes the sauce. Asparagus and shrimp go in at the very end — two minutes, no more — so they stay bright and barely cooked. The whole thing comes together in one pan in half an hour. Works just as well with salmon or scallops if shrimp isn't your thing.
Ingredients
- 350 glinguine
- 400 glarge shrimp
- 300 gasparagus
- 900 mlchicken broth
- 150 mldry white wine
- 2 lemons
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 shallot
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 2 tbspbutter
- 50 gparmesan
- 1 tspchili flakes
- 30 gfresh parsley
- 1 tspsalt
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
Method
- Prep everything before you start — this one moves fast. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut the spears into 4 cm pieces, keeping the tips separate. Mince the garlic and shallot. Zest both lemons and juice one of them. Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels.
- Heat olive oil in a wide, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook for 2 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and chili flakes, stir for 30 seconds — just until fragrant. Do not let the garlic brown.
- Pour in the white wine and let it bubble for 1 minute, scraping up anything stuck to the bottom. Add the broth, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Bring to a strong simmer.
- Add the linguine, spreading it out so it sits mostly submerged. Cook uncovered, stirring every 2 minutes, for 8–10 minutes. The pasta will absorb most of the liquid and what remains will reduce into a loose, glossy sauce. If it looks dry before the pasta is done, add a splash of hot water and keep going.
- When the linguine has about 2 minutes left — still with a noticeable bite — add the asparagus stalks. After 1 minute, add the asparagus tips and lay the shrimp in a single layer across the pan. Cook for exactly 2 minutes, turning the shrimp once halfway through, until they are pink and just curled into a loose C. Do not walk away.
- Take the pan off the heat. Add the butter and half the parmesan, then toss everything together vigorously for about 30 seconds — this emulsifies the sauce and makes it cling to the pasta. Taste for salt and lemon, scatter the remaining parmesan and chopped parsley on top, and serve straight from the pan.
FAQ
Yes. Cut 400 g of salmon fillet into 3 cm cubes and add them when the pasta has 5 minutes left, not 2 — salmon is denser than shrimp and needs a bit longer. Stir gently so the pieces hold together. The sauce picks up more richness from the fish fat, which works well against the lemon. Calories per serving go up to around 580–600 kcal.
Add it in two stages: stalks with 2 minutes left on the pasta, tips 1 minute after that. Pull the pan off the heat the moment the shrimp are done and serve immediately — asparagus keeps cooking from residual heat even off the stove. You want it bright green with a faint resistance when you bite. If it bends like a wet noodle, it went in too early.
In-season asparagus, roughly April through June in most of Europe and North America, is sweeter, more tender, and cooks faster than out-of-season imports. Outside that window, frozen asparagus works reasonably well — add it straight from frozen in the same two-minute window. Other substitutes: frozen peas, sliced zucchini, or baby spinach added off the heat at the very end.
The starch released by the pasta as it cooks in the broth is your thickener — that is the whole point of the one-pot method. If the sauce looks thin when the pasta is done, leave it on medium heat for 1 extra minute while tossing constantly. Adding the butter off the heat and tossing hard also emulsifies the sauce and gives it body. Do not add flour or cornstarch — it turns pasty.
Replace the wine with an equal amount of extra broth plus 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar or the juice of half a lemon. The vinegar brings back the acidity the wine provides. The flavor will be a little flatter without the wine, but the pasta is still very good. A splash of apple cider vinegar also works in a pinch.
Rate this
Recipes by email
One letter a week: a recipe picked for your taste, plus whatever is new on the site. Unsubscribe in one click.
Welcome gift: Sergei's cookbook (e-book).
By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.
Tell us what you like to cook (30 seconds) →Keep browsing
More dishes from the Mediterranean archive — picked by overlap with what you're cooking now.
Join the conversation
Comments (1)
I devein the shrimp by running a small knife along the back for one-pot lemon asparagus pasta with shrimp. It takes 5 minutes for a whole batch and the clean look and taste are worth it. The intestinal tract can add a gritty, unpleasant texture.