Garlic Prawn Tagliatelle

Garlic Prawn Tagliatelle – homemade pasta with a creamy garlic sauce and tiger prawns. This can easily be made with fresh or dried tagliatelle but if you fancy a bit more of a challenge, make your own pasta. It is very easy and a pasta machine can be purchased for under £30.

Recipe

Serves 2

Difficulty Level: Top Chef

Ingredients:

For the homemade pasta:

• 300g ’00’ flour
• 3 large eggs
• Polenta or semolina for dusting

(Or use dried/fresh tagliatelle)

For the sauce:

• 6 tiger prawns
• 30g butter

• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 250ml white wine
• 250ml fish stock
• 200ml double cream
• 2 heaped tablespoons creme fraiche
• 1 lemon
• Bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. For the pasta, combine the eggs and flour in a food processor. Pulse until combined into a ball of dough. (Alternatively, place the flour in a large, wide bowl and make a well in the centre to pour in the egg. Use a fork to combine the flour and eggs gently, bringing in the flour from the sides. Form into a ball.)
2. Knead the dough for around 5 minutes. Wrap tightly in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
3. Use a rolling pin to roll the pasta dough into a flat rectangle. Set up your pasta machine. Begin by feeding the pasta through the largest setting. Work your way down the levels until around level three. Cut the pasta sheets in half if it becomes too long tohandle. It takes practice to know the thickness of pasta needed, but remember if the pasta is too thin it won’t have any bite to it and if it’s too thick it’ll be claggy. Also keep in mind that pasta grows as it cooks.
4. If you have a tagliatelle cutter, use this to cut through the large pasta sheets into tagliatelle. If not, roll each pasta sheet up and slice into tagliatelle thick strips. Unroll and separate.
5. Toss the tagliatelle in semolina or polenta. This will keep each strip separate and ensure it does not stick together when cooked.
6. For the sauce, melt the butter in a large, deep frying pan over a low heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Cook gently for around 5 minutes. Increase the heat and add the prawns and white wine. Bubble for a minute, then add the fish stock, double cream and creme fraiche. Cook for around 5 minutes, turning the prawns every so often until cooked through.
7. Whilst the prawns are cooking, cook the pasta in a large pan of heavily salted boiling water for around 3 minutes until soft.
8. Use tongs to transfer the cooked pasta into the pan of sauce. Some of the pasta cooking water should mix with the sauce to give a glossy, thick sauce. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon and toss through the chopped parsley. Season with plenty salt and black pepper.
9. Serve!