Colm O'Gorman's delicious linguine with king prawns, tomato and chilli

You can make a remarkably diverse range of dishes with a few core ingredients

Linguine with King Prawn, Tomato and Chilli

A few weeks back I went to the fridge not knowing what I would cook. I did not have anything planned, but I reckoned I would just make something from whatever I happened to have in my fridge and kitchen cupboards. This lovey dish of linguine with king prawns was the result, and it was also the inspiration for a short series of recipes in this column showing how it is possible to make a remarkably diverse range of dishes with a few core ingredients; king prawn or chicken, tomatoes, chilli, onion, garlic, and ginger, a few fresh herbs and spices and some other cupboard staples.

So far, I have shared a recipe for a beautiful Goan King prawn Curry and for Salt and Chilli Chicken. This week we are back in Europe for an Italian-inspired dish. You can use fresh or frozen raw king prawns for this recipe. I used frozen jumbo king prawns which were plump and juicy and full of flavour. Do always make sure you fully defrost the prawns before cooking them. Once defrosted they cook in just minutes, so this recipe is very quick and easy to prepare.

You will note that I used fresh plum tomatoes here. Many recipes will suggest that you peel and de-seed the tomatoes, using just the flesh. That will give you a finer sauce, but to be honest, I do not think it is worth the faff. I simply chop the tomatoes into 1cm pieces and use the lot, skin and seeds as well as the flesh. They cook down very well, and my sauce was delicious. Fresh tomatoes work better than tinned for this dish as they give a lighter more subtle flavour and do not overpower the prawns.

Do use a good quality linguine if you can. Lidl stock a lovely bronze-cut linguine which is also great value. Bronze-cut pasta has a slightly rough and porous texture, so it absorbs and carries the flavours of pasta sauces beautifully.

Linguine with King Prawn, Tomato and Chilli

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

An Italian-inspired dish making use of king prawns

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 45 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Italian

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 small onion

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2cm fresh ginger

• 1 red chilli

• 250g fresh plum tomatoes

• 250-300g dried linguine

• 200g raw king prawns

• Handful of fresh parsley

• Small handful of fresh basil

• Flaky sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to season

• A splash of lemon juice

Method

1. Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel and grate the garlic and the ginger. Wash, deseed and finely chop the red chilli and wash and cut the tomatoes into 1cm pieces.

2. Get a large pan of water on to boil and add a generous amount of salt, a heaped teaspoon full is perfect.

3. Heat a heavy based pan over a high heat and add the olive oil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the chopped onion. Sautee them until they are soft, about two minutes will do it. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook those for another one to two minutes, just until the garlic and ginger lose their raw smell. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir well to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Cook for ten minutes, checking occasionally and giving the sauce a stir.

4. While the sauce is simmering, cook the linguine. Add the dried pasta to the pan, I generally use about 125g of dried pasta per person but adjust the amount to suit your own requirements. The linguine will take about twelve minutes to cook. You want it to retain some bite, so do not overcook it. I always check mine after ten minutes as the time it requires will vary depending upon the pasta that I use.

5. At the ten minutes stage, check the sauce. The tomatoes will have broken down by now and the sauce will be quite thick, more like a paste than a sauce. Take half a cup of the starchy water from the pasta pot and add that to the sauce, stirring it in well. The salty, starchy water will add flavour but also help bind the pasta and sauce together; and it also helps give a lovely texture to the sauce.

6. When the pasta is ready, drain it into a colander before returning it to the pan. Reserve a little more of the pasta water in case you need to thin the sauce a little more at the end. Add a generous splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil to the cooked pasta at this stage, this will add lots of flavour and prevent it from sticking while you finish the sauce.

7. Turn the heat under the sauce up to medium and add the prawns. Chop the fresh parsley and basil and add those at the same time. Stir to coat the prawns well in the sauce and cook for three minutes, stirring regularly to turn them over and ensure that they cook evenly. Take care not to overcook the prawns or they will lose all their lovely juicy, delicate flavour. They really do just need minutes in the sauce.

8. Tase and add salt and fresh ground black pepper as needed. You will need less salt than you might imagine as there will have been some in the pasta water that you added earlier, but a good grind of fresh black pepper is essential. Add a splash of lemon juice to finish.

9. Serve the pasta on warm plates or pasta bowls and add the sauce and prawns on top. Finish with a little more chopped parsley or basil and serve immediately. If you fancy sides, some garlic and herb bread and a fresh green salad would be perfect.