How To Make Shrimp Boil Pasta

Two summertime staples—pasta salads and shrimp boils—combine in this fun family-style meal. The tangy sauce, flavored with scallions, Old Bay seasoning, lemon, and thyme, is truly delicious. When making a pasta dish, one simple trick will take the recipe from good to great.

The key to making great tasting pasta is in the cooking water. Add about two tablespoons of kosher salt to a large stockpot of water before boiling, and then add the pasta. Salted water flavors the pasta internally as it absorbs liquid and swells. Many times a recipe will instruct you to reserve some of the cooking water, adding it later to the sauce. This flavorful dish could be described as a Low Country Boil with pasta.

Complete with smoked sausage, fresh corn kernels, and Old Bay Seasoning, you can have the flavors of an outdoor shrimp boil in less than 40 minutes. We like gemelli or casarecce pasta for this recipe, since the narrow and twisted shapes of the pasta hold flavor while remaining al dente. Remember when cooking with shrimp to stir it in at the end. It only takes 2 to 4 minutes to cook.