less than 30 mins
10 to 30 mins
Serves 4-8
This wonderful seafood dish is traditionally made with scampi. Langoustine would be closest, but large prawns work well. In this case don’t even think about shelling them before cooking – the joy is in sucking the juices out of the shells.
By Rick Stein
Ingredients
- 100ml/3½fl oz
olive oil, plus extra to serve - 3
garlic cloves, finely chopped - 3
shallots, finely chopped - 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 large ripe
tomatoes, peeled and chopped - pinch
chilli flakes - pinch
saffron strands - 1 tsp
salt - 250ml/9fl oz
white wine - 24 large raw
prawns, whole - 2 tbsp
breadcrumbs - small handful roughly chopped flatleaf
parsley - crusty
bread, to serve - freshly ground
black pepper
Method
-
Pour 70ml/2½fl oz of the olive oil in a frying pan and set over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and shallots.
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When they are sizzling, stir in the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, chilli flakes, saffron and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the shallots and garlic burning, then add the wine and cook for a further minute.
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Add 100ml/3½fl oz water and the remaining salt, bring to the boil. Stir, then reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer and reduce for 20 minutes.
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Meanwhile, pour the remaining olive oil in another frying pan and set over a high heat. When the pan is really hot, fry the prawns for a minute, then remove from the heat.
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With the sauce still bubbling, add the fried prawns and coat them well. Season well with black pepper, and add a tablespoon of the breadcrumbs. Use more crumbs if the sauce is too thin.
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Cook for a further 2 minutes then turn off the heat. Drizzle over a little more olive oil. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately with crusty bread.