Colm O'Gorman: My King Prawn Puttanesca is the catch of the day

Colm O'Gorman's King-Prawn Puttanesca

I shared my recipe for a classic pasta puttanesca here in this column several months ago, and it has proven hugely popular. 

Puttanesca is a wonderful dish, full of flavour and super easy to prepare. 

Anchovies are a crucial ingredient, and though they in no way overpower this classic dish, they are not to everyone’s taste.

So, this week I am offering you a lovely alternative take on a classic puttanesca. 

This recipe is another one that is the result of a last-minute check of the fridge to see what could be turned into a tasty meal at the end of a long workday. 

I originally planned to cook pasta with prawns and chilli, but then I spotted some good green olives and a jar of capers in the fridge door and decided to add those as well. 

That turned out to be a very good decision indeed; the tangy, fresh, salty flavour of the olives and capers really made this dish something special and the freshness of flat-leaf parsley just elevated that freshness even more. 

When I tasted the sauce, I realised I had essentially created a very tasty anchovy-less puttanesca.

The king prawns do not bring the same depth of savoury flavour as anchovies, but they are beautifully sweet and juicy. So, if you are a bit phobic of anchovies, then this is the ‘puttanesca’ for you. 

This is a fresher take on the classic, and who knows, once you try this one, you might even be tempted to try the original recipe.

Serve my King Prawn Puttanesca with a simple salad of green leaves tossed in good extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and with lots of fresh crusty bread to mop up the sauce. 

Resist the urge to add grated parmesan, it will just overpower the prawns and this dish is much better without it.

King Prawn Puttanesca

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Serve with a simple salad of green leaves tossed in good extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and with lots of fresh crusty bread to mop up the sauce.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 onion

• 4 cloves garlic

• 400g cherry tomatoes

• 75g pitted green olives

• 50g capers

• 1 lemon

• 1 tsp chilli flakes

• 400g dried tagliatelle

• 250g raw king prawns

• Handful of fresh parsley

• Flaky sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to season

Method

1. Peel and finely chop the onion and the garlic. Wash and cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters. Roughly chop the olives and the capers. Zest the lemon; set the lemon itself aside for now, you will use some of the juice towards the end of cooking.

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 pop in the chopped onion. Cook for a few minutes, until the onion begins to soften and add the garlic. Stir and cook for another minute, before adding the chilli flakes, lemon zest, olives, and capers. Stir those in and next, add the chopped cherry tomatoes. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Cook for ten minutes, checking and giving the sauce an occasional stir every few minutes.

4. While the sauce is simmering, cook the tagliatelle. Add the dried pasta to the pan, I find about 125g per person is a generous serving, but 400g will give a decent serving for four people. The tagliatelle will take about ten to twelve minutes to cook. You want it to retain some bite, so take care not to overcook it. I always check mine after ten minutes as the time required can vary depending upon the brand of pasta that you use.

5. At the ten minutes stage, check the sauce. The tomatoes will have broken down by now and the sauce may be a little thick, more like a paste really. Take half a cup of the starchy water from the pot of pasta and add that to the sauce, stirring it in well. The salty, starchy water will loosen up the sauce, add seasoning and give it a lovely silky texture.

6. When the pasta is ready, drain it into a colander, reserving some more of the cooking water in case you need to thin the sauce a little more at the end. Return the cooked pasta to the pan and add a splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil to the cooked pasta. 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. Stir to coat the prawns well in the sauce and cook for three minutes, stirring regularly to 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. Chop the fresh parsley and add half to the sauce.

8. Add the juice of half a lemon and stir that through the sauce. Taste and add salt and fresh ground black pepper and more lemon juice as needed.

9. Transfer the sauce into the pan of pasta and use tongs to toss the pasta in the sauce, making sure it is well coated. Serve immediately on warm plates or pasta bowls and finish with a scatter of the remaining chopped parsley.