This is my favorite pasta with prawns. I just kind of threw these ingredients together at home a few years ago and have been making it since cause it tastes just divine! It is very quick to make and so delicious. In fact it is so good, you can totally serve it for a nice dinner with friends. Takes only 15 minutes to make, so simple and easy it is.
I used urfa chili flakes in this, but feel free to use any type of chili flakes you have on hand.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 packet fresh fettuccine
1 small chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 chopped red chillies
splash of white wine
250 grams shrimp or prawns (peeled with tails left on)
4-6 tablespoons cream
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
salt
pepper
lemon zest of half a lemon
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon depending on your taste
1 – 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Place your salted water on the hob to boil for the fettuccine.
Heat oil in a frying pan, and add your onion and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes and stir on med heat. Now add in your prawns and chopped red chili. Stir. Add salt and pepper. When prawns start to go a bit pink, add a splash of white wine. Stir. Once the wine has dried a little add in your cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, chili flakes and dill. Drop you fettuccine in the water (should only take 2-3 minutes). Cook for another minute or so till every thing is warm and comes together. Do not over cook your prawns.
Drain your pasta and add to the sauce. Toss. Serve at once, sprinkled with some more dill on top and parmesan if you like.
The perfect winter soup. If you want to feel wholesome and full of goodness, just stirring up this big pot of yumminess is going to do wonders to take your mind in that direction, and the body will soon follow! Add whatever vegetables you like, I added some frozen lima beans to the mix, I did not have fennel so skipped that (but imagine it would be fantastic with it). Overall, use what you have on hand, this is a flexible recipe. It does taste superb and is very warming in the freezing cold new york weather right now. It is also great to have lots of left over soup in the fridge, as I think it tastes even better the next day. I also like to give my soup a bit of kick and add a little cayenne pepper to it while cooking. Don’t forget to sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, a splash of good olive oil and some pepper right in each bowl before serving.
This one is a recipe from the great Jamie Oliver and is definitely a keeper so go ahead and give it a try…
serves 6
200 g cannellini or borlotti beans, fresh or dried and soaked overnight or a 400 g tin
1 bay leaf
1 tomato, squashed
1 small potato, peeled
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
4 rashers higher-welfare smoked pancetta or bacon
2 small red onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped
½ head fennel, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 small bunch fresh basil, leaves and stalks separated
2×400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes
1 glass red wine
2 small courgettes, quartered and sliced
200 g chard or spinach, washed and roughly sliced (including stalks)
565 ml organic chicken, ham or vegetable stock
55 g dried pasta
1 block Parmesan cheese, to serve
If using canned beans like me, skip this paragraph. Add your fresh or dried and soaked beans to a pan of water with the bay leaf, squashed tomato and potato – this will help to flavour the beans and soften their skins. Cook until tender – check by tasting. They must be soft. Dried beans can take up to an hour, but check fresh ones after 25 minutes. Drain (reserving about half a glass of the cooking water), and discard the bay leaf, tomato and potato. Now season with salt, pepper and a splash of oil.
While the beans are cooking, make your soffrito. Heat a good splash of olive oil in a saucepan and add the chopped pancetta or bacon, onions, carrots, celery, fennel, garlic and the finely sliced basil stalks. Sweat very slowly on a low heat, with the lid just ajar, for around 15 to 20 minutes until soft, but not brown. Add the tomatoes, courgettes and red wine and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Now add the swiss chard or spinach, stock and beans. Put the dried pasta into a polythene bag, squeeze all the air out and tie the end up. Bash gently with a rolling pin to break the pasta into pieces. Snip the end off the bag and empty the contents into the soup. Stir and continue to simmer until the pasta is cooked.
If you think the soup is looking too thick, add a little more stock or some of the reserved cooking water to thin it down a bit. Then taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with the torn-up basil leaves and with some extra virgin olive oil drizzled over the top. Put a block of Parmesan and a grater on the table for everyone to help themselves. Heaven!
This is superbly simple and quick to pull together. You can use any mixture of mushrooms you can lay your hands on (just avoid those flavorless plain white button mushrooms). On this occasion I used 3 huge portabello mushrooms and a big punnet of brown mushrooms. Using a variety of different mushrooms including wild ones will ensure you have a good mix of of textures and flavors.
This is a perfect sauce for winter time weeknights when you crave some quick and authentic Italian.
MUSHROOM RAGU
3 big portabello mushrooms
1 punnet brown mushrooms
2-4 cloves garlic
3-4 thai red chillies (or whatever red chili you have)
1/3 cup white wine
2.5 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons cream (optional) It is great without it too!
salt to taste
fresh cracked pepper
1 cup chicken stock
1 packet tagliatelle or pasta of your choice
Clean and cut your mushrooms. Heat the oil in heavy based frying pan and add your mushrooms. Add a little salt to help them sweet faster. Now add your garlic and chopped chili. stir and cook for 8 mins or so. Add lots of fresh creaked pepper and chili flakes if you want more spice. Add the white wine and cook till evaporated. Add the chicken stock and let the pot simmer for 5 minutes or so.
Once your pasta is al dante, reserve some water to thin the sauce incase its necessary, drain pasta and toss into the sauce. If you want add a couple of spoons of cream and fresh parsley and toss through till every thing is coated in the sauce. Serve with parmesan cheese and freshly cracked black pepper.
