Shrimp Marinara
by Sommer Collier — last updated on May 15, 2025 
Our Seafood Marinara Recipe includes tender, plump shrimp simmered in a rustic homemade marinara for a deeply flavorful red sauce that is perfect to serve over your favorite pasta!
Why We Love This Easy Shrimp Marinara Recipe
Who doesn’t love a simple pasta with red sauce? My tried-and-true homemade marinara sauce is a family favorite. It has deep delicious tomato, onion, and garlic flavors, but really could not be any easier to prepare in under an hour. Here we take that traditional rustic sauce and make it more inviting by tossing in light and tender shrimp.
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
This Seafood Marinara recipe is made with shrimp, but can be adjusted to include other types of seafood as well, like mussels, clams, calamari, scallops, lobster, prawns, or chunks of white fish.
It’s wonderful to serve over traditional pasta, or with healthy zucchini noodles for a low-carb dish. And honestly, I would not blame you one bit if you eat the red sauce with a spoon right from the pan!
Protein Pointer – If you are looking for ways to incorporate more protein into your diet, you can double the amount of shrimp (or other seafood varieties) in this recipe.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter – unsalted (or olive oil)
- Onion – diced
- Garlic cloves – minced
- Shrimp – peeled and deveined
- Cooking sherry – to sauté the shrimp
- Tomato sauce – canned or jarred
- Basil leaves – fresh, chopped
- Salt and pepper – to taste
How to Make Shrimp Marinara
Find the full Seafood Marinara recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, and cooking tips in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Pro Tip: Remember when cooking shrimp, C shape means “cooked” and O means “overcooked.”
Serving Suggestions
- Spoon the sauce warm over your favorite pasta noodles, like spaghetti or penne. Use gluten-free pasta noodles if you like!
- Shrimp in tomato sauce is fabulous to enjoy as an Italian-inspired “shrimp and grits” over creamy polenta.
- Or to make this a low-carb dish, simply serve with fresh zucchini noodles (AKA zoodles)!
Frequently Asked Questions
Traditional spaghetti sauce is known for being a more thick and rich sauce, typically made with meat and/or chopped veggies. Marinara, like this red sauce for shrimp pasta, tends to be thinner and lighter.
The red sauce is terrific to make with shrimp, mussels, lump crab, scallops, or clams! Similar to shrimp, take care that you do not overcook the seafood before the tomato sauce is added.
Yes, it does. Cooking sherry has up to 17% alcohol. Some of the alcohol cooks out when sautéing the shrimp, but not entirely. However, there are only 3 tablespoons of sherry in the entire recipe, so no need to worry about serving shrimp marinara with pasta to little ones!
You can add red or white wine to the sauce instead of sherry. Chicken stock is a great substitute to make the red sauce without alcohol for shrimp pasta.
This dish is best to enjoy right away while the shrimp are warm and tender. But leftovers can be stored in an airtight container and kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Reheat the seafood marinara in a microwave in short bursts, or on the stovetop on low, until the shrimp is just warmed through.
Add crushed red pepper flakes to give the sauce a spicy kick!
For a silky tomato-cream sauce add a splash of heavy cream at the end.
If you desire a robust herb flavor, add in other fresh herbs like fresh parsley, rosemary, thyme, or dill.
Looking for More Easy Seafood Recipes?
Seafood Marinara Sauce Recipe with Shrimp
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup diced onion
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound large raw shrimp peeled and deveined
- 3 tablespoons cooking sherry
- 28 ounces tomato sauce
- ¼ cup chopped basil leaves
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Set a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the butter, diced onion, and garlic. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes to soften the onions. Make sure not to burn the garlic and onions, if needed turn the temperature down just a little.
- Stir in the shrimp and cooking sherry. Continue to sauté for 2 to 3 more minutes until the shrimp are mostly cooked through.
- Add the tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook another 7-10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the basil leaves. Taste, then salt and pepper as needed. Allow the seafood marinara to rest for 20+ minutes before serving, so the seafood flavors can intensify without overcooking the shrimp. (I usually make the sauce first, then boil the water for the pasta, or shred the noodles. Then I rewarm the sauce if needed.)
I had never thought to make something like this until I saw it and it was absolutely fantastic!! Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe. It’s not a favorite!
Such a delicious meal, it is definitely getting marked and saved to have again.
This was so incredibly easy to make! Perfect for a light lunch, it’s absolutely delicious!