Sicilian Prawn Linguine

Many years ago we used to have a small family owned Italian restaurant in our neighbourhood and the boss was Sicilian and one of my favourite dishes was spaghetti with prawns and garlic in a thick tomato sauce that clung beautifully to the spaghetti. It had a hint of chili to warm it up and was awesome.

Many years later along comes YouTube and Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals and he knocks up this wonderful looking linguine dish with prawns in a tomato saffron sauce and I just love this dish in the summer with a chilled glass of Grillo.

When Jamie Olive made this dish he melted in some anchovies at the beginning and added cinnamon too, but I prefer it without.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

 800 gr raw shelled king prawns
 1 good pinch of saffron
 olive oil
 1 onion
 1 splash of dry white wine, preferably Sicilian
 1 x 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
 2 cloves of finely sliced or chopped garlic
 1 red chili, chopped
 320g dried linguine or spaghetti
 1 large handful of rocket/arugula, roquette or rucola
 1 lemon

For the pangrattato

 2 slices of white bread
 1 clove of garlic, crushed
 2 tbs olive oil

Preparation Method:

Unless you buy ready shelled and deveined prawns you will need to peel the prawns, then run a knife down the back and pull out the veins. You can keep the tail on if you like and it’s nice to chop up a handful of the prawns for a different texture in the sauce.

Put the saffron into a little bowl with a splash of boiling water and leave to soak.

Finely chop the onion and fry in a pan with olive oil until they are soft and translucent then add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes then add the saffron with its water. Turn the heat up, add the wine and cook it for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol, then add the tinned tomatoes, add 1 tin’s worth of water and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 12 minutes.

If you want a smooth sauce you can of course leave the sauce to cool a little, then, in small batches, blitz in a blender until smooth, pass through a coarse sieve and season to taste. Or just leave it as a nice

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil for the pasta.

You must make this with dried pasta as fresh doesn’t have that aldente bite to it.

Now it’s time to focus. Great pasta is all about timing and confidence – the sauce takes 4 minutes, so the dried pasta has to be in the pot for a few minutes before you start the sauce. Check the cooking time on the pasta and start cooking the prawns about halfway through as you don’t want you to overcook the prawns or pasta.

Place a large pan on a high heat and, once hot, add a good lug of olive oil, quickly followed by the chili. After 30 seconds, toss in the whole prawns, then after another 6 seconds add the chopped prawns and toss again. Pour over the sauce and bring to a simmer.

At this point, drain your cooked pasta and place it on top of the sauce. Toss again, quickly check the seasoning and divide between four bowls, followed by any leftover prawns and sauce.

Preparation for the Pangrattato

Tear the bread up into smaller pieces and put into a food processor. Finely chop the garlic put it in the processor with the bread and drizzle with olive oil.
Blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs then pour out into a pan and fry until golden and crispy.

Pour the pasta and prawns in sauce onto a plate, and apply the pangrattato as you would with grated Parmesan and then top each portion with a clump of rocket, add a squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Eat it, and be proud of yourself.

Enjoy!