Bring the sunshine to your house with this beautiful Tuscan prawn pasta. I love enjoying a big bowl of this with my hubby and a nice glass of the left over wine needed for cooking. Something feels super luxurious about this silky pasta sauce yet the recipe is incredibly simple. When picking frozen prawns I always look out for raw peeled Argentinian shrimp, which sound abit exotic but you can find them in most supermarkets in the frozen section, just be sure to defrost them before cooking. They are a touch more expensive then king prawns, only by a pound or so but they're worth it because they are so plump and sweet, they don't get lost and shrink to nothing in the sauce. However feel free to swap them to suit your budget.
When you have a read through the recipe you'll see that the prawns are cooked separately at the beginning and then added back later on, this is a great way to control the cooking of the prawns, you literally watch them cook in the delicious garlic infused butter and can remove them when they're just cooked, sometimes if you throw them in to the sauce to cook through you risk over cooking them because you can't see them properly.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!!
Prep time 5mins
Cooking time 25mins
500g of dried tagliatelle
3tbsp butter, or olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled then using the back of a spoon squash them lightly (picture reference at the bottom of this recipe)
1.5tbsp dried Italian herbs
350g raw red Argentinian prawns, they're my preference because they're big and juicy but you can swap for king prawns
1 onion, finely diced
200ml white wine
170g jarred sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
200ml chicken stock
150-200ml double cream
4 handfuls of fresh spinach
3tsp of freshly chopped parsley
Grating of fresh parmesan (optional)
Turn a large saucepan of water on to boil, add a pinch of salt.
In a large sauté pan or deep frying pan add the butter and turn it on to a medium heat.
Once the butter has melted add the bashed garlic cloves and 1tbsp of your dried herbs (save some for later on) cook for 3 minutes until it has flavoured the butter.
Now add your raw prawns to the pan and season with a little salt and pepper, cook until just cooked this should take between 4 and 5 mins depending on the size of your prawns. Once they are just cooked remove and set aside until later. You can discard the garlic cloves at this point.
Add your dried pasta to your boiling water, if you haven't all ready, and cook according to packaging. Keep an eye on it, if its cooked before your sauce is ready drain it, drizzle it with a little olive oil and mix well this should stop it from clumping together.
While the pasta is cooking, back to the sauce.
In the same pan as you cooked the prawns add the diced onion, there should be enough butter remaining in the pan but you can always add a little more if the pan is to dry. Sauté the onion until tender and translucent, about 7minutes.
Now turn the heat up and add the wine. We need the alcohol to cook out so keep it bubbling away on high until the liquid has reduced by 2 thirds. Once it has reduced down lower the heat back down to medium.
Add the remaining dried herbs, chopped sun dried and fresh cherry tomatoes to the pan and cook for a few minutes until they start releasing some juices.
Add your chicken stock and cook until it has reduced by at least half (watch my video to see how much I cook mine down by)
Take the pan off the heat for about 1 min and then add the cream, stir well and then pop back on to a medium heat.
Add the prawns back into the sauce and cook for 5 minutes to make sure the prawns are warmed through, stirring often, have a taste and adjust the salt and pepper depending on your taste, I normally add about 1/4 tsp of pepper and sometimes a little more salt but do what you think tastes nice. Remember you can always add more but once its in you can't take it out so add a little at a time.
Now stir through the spinach, this will wilt in the residual heat in about 2 minutes.
Pour in your cooked pasta and stir until all the pasta is coated, serve into bowls and garnish with some freshly ground pepper, the chopped parsley and a little grated parmesan.
