Garlic prawn spaghetti

Method

Garlic is the unsung hero of dinner time. We all love it, we all use too much of it but that’s not actually a bad thing. Aside from tasting amazing, Garlic has LOADS of benefits: Reduces cholesterol, actively reduces blood pressure, combats sickness and also gives you bad breath that can frighten off any unwanted attention.

We’re all guilty of putting far too much of it in our food, I’ve often found myself checking a recipe that says “Add 3 cloves of Garlic” and I find myself rounding it up to 5…you know, just in case!! So I thought, why not just go the full shebang and create a recipe that uses a whole bulb of the “Diamond ala Francais” (Garlic). Yes you heard right, the WHOLE BULB.

I have created a sauce that isn’t full of cream or butter and I’ve come up with a very tasty alternative.

A lot of the flavour of Prawns is in their heads and shells, so for added flavor, follow step 1 to make the base for a real quick and easy fish sauce. Don’t forget to use a potato masher or back of a wooden spoon to squeeze out any excess flavour!

Roughly chop up your shell on Prawns (Leave the skins on them as we’re not really eating them, they’re just for epic flavour) and then sweat them off for a couple of minutes in a saucepan with the chopped shallot. Pour in the water and bring it all to the boil. Turn it down to a simmer and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Then strain the liquid from the shells and discard your fishy pulp. Keep the prawn stock.

In a large frying pan, put your oil and as it is coming up to heat stir in your sliced garlic bulb and chilli. As the oil comes up to heat, it with help to gently release the flavour of the sliced garlic without burning it. Leave it on a low heat.

Gently, add your Prawn stock to the oil (Make sure the oil isn’t too hot first) and reduce the mixture by just over half.

Once reduced, add your prawns and cook until pink. Blanche your fresh spaghetti in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain it and add it to your Prawns and “sauce”.

Finish off the mixture with some chopped cherry tomatoes and and a good handful of fresh chopped parsley. Toss the whole lot together, making sure your spaghetti gets a good coating of garlic, chilli and parsley. Serve in a bowl and top with the zest and juice of a lemon.

Note: If you prefer your tomatoes softer then chop them up and add them to the garlic mix as you start cooking the Prawns. I prefer mine with a bit more bite, so add them in last minute!