Seafood Pasta with Shrimp & Crab You’ll Crave All Summer

Some dishes try too hard. This one doesn’t have to. This seafood pasta with shrimp and crab is cool, creamy, bright with lemon and dill, and loaded with tender shrimp and sweet crab in every forkful. It takes about 25 minutes of actual work, chills in the fridge while you do literally anything else, and comes out tasting like something you’d pay way too much for at a seaside restaurant.

I’ve made this for backyard cookouts, last-minute lunches, and once at 11 PM because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. No regrets.

Five Steps, Zero Stress, One Incredible Bowl

Here’s what I love about this recipe — it moves fast, it’s forgiving, and every step is simple. Let’s walk through it.

Step 1: Cook the Pasta and Cool It Down Fast

Boil your pasta according to the package directions until it’s perfectly al dente — you want a little bite left, because it’ll soften slightly as it sits in the dressing. Drain it well, then rinse immediately under cold running water. This stops the cooking and cools the pasta so it won’t wilt your vegetables or warm up your seafood.

Pro tip: Shake that colander a few extra times. Excess water hiding in the pasta tubes is the number one reason cold pasta salads end up watery.

Step 2: Toss the Good Stuff Together

In a large mixing bowl, gently combine the cooled pasta with the shrimp, crab meat, celery, halved cherry tomatoes, and red onion. Use a big spoon or your hands — you want everything distributed evenly without breaking up the delicate crab. Take your time here. This is the moment the bowl starts looking gorgeous.

Step 3: Whisk Up That Creamy Lemon Dressing

In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper until it’s silky smooth. This dressing is deceptively simple — the Dijon adds a subtle warmth, the lemon keeps everything bright, and the mayo ties it all together into something luscious.

Taste it now. Adjust your salt and pepper. You want it just slightly more seasoned than you think, because the cold pasta will absorb some of that flavor.

Step 4: Bring It All Together

Pour that creamy dressing over the pasta and seafood mixture. Sprinkle in the fresh dill — and please, use fresh here, not dried. The difference is night and day. Toss everything gently until every piece of pasta and every bite of seafood is coated in that glossy, tangy dressing.

Step 5: Chill and Let the Flavors Do Their Thing

Cover the bowl and slide it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I know it’s tempting to dig in immediately, but this resting time lets the dressing soak into the pasta and all those flavors meld into something so much better than the sum of their parts. Serve it cold with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing.

What’s Going Into This Beautiful Bowl

The ingredients are grouped because this salad has three layers of flavor working together — the protein-packed base, the fresh crunch, and the creamy dressing that pulls it all together.

Pasta & Seafood

Ingredient	Amount	Notes
Rotini, penne, or your favorite shape	8 oz	Short shapes catch the dressing best
Cooked shrimp, peeled	1 cup	Tender, sweet, ready to go
Fresh crab meat	1 cup	Picked through carefully for shells

Fresh Vegetables

Ingredient	Amount	Notes
Celery, chopped small	½ cup	Cool crunch in every bite
Cherry tomatoes, halved	½ cup	Juicy little bursts of sweetness
Red onion, finely diced	¼ cup	Sharp, colorful, just enough bite

Creamy Dressing

Ingredient	Amount	Notes
Good quality mayonnaise	½ cup	The rich, creamy backbone
Fresh lemon juice	2 tablespoons	Bright and essential
Dijon mustard	1 tablespoon	Subtle heat, smooth flavor
Salt and black pepper	To taste	Season boldly
Fresh dill, finely chopped	1 tablespoon	Fragrant, herby, perfect with seafood
Lemon wedges	For serving	Always

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Chill Time: 30 minutes | Total: 55 minutes | Servings: 4

The Traps That’ll Water Down Your Salad Game

• Not draining the pasta well enough. Waterlogged pasta dilutes the dressing and makes everything soupy. Rinse, drain, shake, and let it sit in the colander for a minute.
• Using imitation crab. If you can, spring for the real thing. Fresh crab meat has a sweet, delicate flavor that imitation just can’t match. It’s the star here — let it shine.
• Skipping the cold rinse on the pasta. Warm pasta will partially cook your shrimp further, wilt the tomatoes, and melt the dressing into a thin mess. Cold pasta, cold seafood, cold vegetables. Everything stays crisp.
• Overdressing too early. The salad absorbs dressing as it chills. If it looks a bit saucy before it hits the fridge, that’s perfect — it’ll be just right when you serve it. If you overdress, you can’t go back.
• Using dried dill instead of fresh. Dried dill tastes dusty in a cold salad. Fresh dill is grassy, bright, and aromatic. It makes the whole dish smell incredible.

What Each Serving Brings to the Table

Nutrient	Per Serving
Calories	380
Protein	22g
Fat	18g
Saturated Fat	3g
Carbohydrates	32g
Fiber	2g
Sodium	620mg

That 22g of protein per serving is no joke — between the shrimp and crab, this is a salad that actually fills you up.

Dream Scenes for Serving This

• In a big glass bowl at a summer cookout next to grilled corn, watermelon slices, and cold drinks sweating in the sun.
• Scooped onto butter lettuce cups for an elegant, low-carb lunch that looks like you tried way harder than you did.
• Alongside crusty garlic bread and a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio on a warm evening.
• Packed into jars for meal prep — it keeps beautifully for 2 days in the fridge.

Take This to Your Next Gathering and Watch What Happens

This seafood pasta with shrimp and crab is the kind of recipe that earns you a reputation. It’s the dish people ask about, the one they text you for afterwards, the one that gets requested again before you’ve even finished cleaning up. It’s simple, it’s stunning, and it tastes like summer in a bowl. So make it this weekend, bring it somewhere, or just keep it all for yourself — I won’t judge. Come back and drop a comment, rate the recipe, and tell me what you paired it with. I want every detail.

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