It might sound strange to compare home cooking to the generally dry world of corporate finance but sometimes I think it's valuable to take a cut throat, unemotional approach to what you cook at home. Life is short and schedules are busy so no one wants to cook time intensive meals that deliver mediocre results. There are many recipes in the world that fall under this category (*cough* making puff pastry) where a quick alternative often produces better results. The below result always reminds me that sometimes quick and easy is the way to go when looking to create flavoursome grub.
Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Garlic
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 20 raw prawns, shells removed (I find green is easiest to find)
- 125ml of olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic (I would go harder on this but apparently not everyone loves garlic as much as me, alter to taste but this is a good starting point)
- 1/2 brown onion
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of chilli flakes (same advice as the garlic above)
- 60ml of dry white wine
- 400g of dry linguine (or similar pasta)
- 1/2 bunch of parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Finely dice the onion and slice the garlic
- In a large (preferably high walled) frypan, add 3/4 of the oil over a low heat and add the onion, garlic and chilli flakes. Slowly sauté these so that they flavour the oil.
- Whilst the above is cooking, cook the linguine per the packets instructions.
- Once the onion has softened, add the wine to pan and cook for a couple of minutes till the alcohol smell reduces.
- Tip the onion/garlic/chill/wine mixture into the pot that the linguine was cooked in and add the drained pasta.
- Put the same frypan back on the heat, increase the temperature to medium high heat and add the remaining oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the prawns and saute for 1 to 2 minutes each side. We are aiming for some browning but it's more important that you don't overcook rather than seek this.
- When the prawns have lost their translucency, add them directly to the pasta/sauce pot and stir.
- Finely chop some parsley and mix into the pot.
- Season to taste and pour yourself a glass of Good Clean Fun Riesling