This is one of my favourite recipes from when I started cooking in our first flat over 20 years ago. It originated from a well-thumbed Good Food magazine and still features in our house as a supper party dish and a family dinner. It’s elegant, with the wonderful flavours of chilli, garlic and basil studded with a generous quantity of king prawns.
Adapt this dish to include any of your favourite flavours such as lemon or parsley; replace the prawns with bacon or make it vegetarian by adding pan-fried halloumi. I hope this recipe is as much of a keeper for you as it has been for me.
And enjoy!
Prawn, Chilli and Basil Pasta Recipe
Serves 3-4 people
You will need a large frying pan
- approx 300g pasta ~ spaghetti or linguine is good here
- 100g sugar snaps or y‹ou could use a handful of spinach
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
- approx 250g to 300g raw prawns, dependent on the pack size
- 20 cherry or baby plum tomatoes, halved
- A handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
Parmesan shavings and a drizzle of olive
Heat a large pan of boiling salted water then add the pasta and leave to cook according to the pack instructions.
A minute before the pasta is cooked, if you are using, add the halved sugar snaps and cook them for a minute then drain the past and sugar snaps.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the finely chopped chilli and garlic and cook over a medium heat until softening and until just starting to brown, for around a minute.
Add the prawns and cook for a further 3 minutes or until they are turning pink, then toss in the halved cherry tomatoes. Cook for another minute or two then add the drained pasta and sugar snaps to the pan.
Toss everything around, add the freshly chopped basil, drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil and serve with shavings of Parmesan.
This recipe will feature on lucyloves.uk.com this week
