This was to celebrate my friend Shaun leaving his job after 16 years and starting a new venture. This is garlicky prawns and chorizo served on pasta soaked in a creamy white wine sauce. It has some of his favourite things – pasta, chorizo, prawns, garlic, wine, cream, butter and cheese. The new venture isn’t to eat as many calories as possible in one sitting… although you might be forgiven for thinking that…
What to use – serves 2
- 200g fresh linguine
- 200g unearthed chorizo cut into slices the thickness of about 2 pound coins
- 150g king prawns
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
For the pasta sauce
- A large knob of butter
- 75g chopped shallots – I use the frozen ones – so easy
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed/chopped
- 150ml creme fraiche
- 150ml white wine
- 200ml chicken stock – use one chicken stock cube
- handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped – keep some back to sprinkle over at the end
Grated parmesan to serve – along with the extra parsley
How to use it
Melt the butter on a medium heat and add the shallots. Cook for a couple of minutes then add the two cloves of finely chopped garlic. Cook for a few minutes but don’t let it get brown.
Add the white wine and turn the heat up so that it bubbles. Bubble and let it cook down for 5 minutes. While that’s bubbling, make or heat your chicken stock.
Add the chicken stock to the pan, stir well, bring back to a bubble, and then let simmer for 10 minutes so it reduces down by about a third to a half.
Add the creme fraiche and parsley, stir and bring to a bubble. Simmer gently for five minutes. Taste and then season if needed.
You can then set this to one side.
When ready to eat, put the chorizo in a wide non-stick frying pan along with the garlic and put on a medium heat. The chorizo will start to fry and release its juices so you don’t need any additional oil.
Stir/turn it after a few minutes. After about five minutes, or when it looks cooked, add the prawns. Stir everything together and cook for a couple of minutes until the prawns are cooked or heated through).
When the linguine is cooked, drain it and put it back in the pan quickly, then stir the creamy white wine sauce in. Stir well, coating the pasta in the sauce, then put the lid back on and give the pasta a minute or two to soak up the flavours. Stir again then serve.
Pile the chorizo and prawn mix on top, including all the orange chorizo juices, then garnish with parmesan and the remaining parsley.