METHOD

First things first: make sure you have a couple of your favourite, very dry, crisp, bottles of white wine in the fridge!

• Cook the linguine so that it’s as ‘al dente’ as you like.
  I usually cut 1 -2 minutes off the cooking time suggested on the packet then test it by biting into a strand. I like it to have a bit of a “bite” and so I want to be able to just about detect a dot of uncooked pasta in the centre of the strand. I never use a colander to strain the pasta once it’s cooked. I just strain out the water over the side of the pan using the lid to prevent it from slipping out and I leave a very small amount of water in the bottom of the pan. Add a splash of olive oil.

• While your pasta is boiling, heat up about 4 tablespoons of good quality olive oil in a large saucepan.
• Toss in the chopped garlic (except for a teaspoonful which you’ve kept aside for the unshelled prawns) and chilli, stir for about 20 seconds and then add the shelled prawns.
• Chuck in the chopped coriander.
• Season this with plenty of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• At this point you will almost certainly want to add more olive oil. Remember you’re making a sauce for pasta so it needs to be quite ‘wet’ so don’t be afraid to be liberal with the olive oil.
• Mix everything in the saucepan gently using large wooden spoons. The prawns shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes to cook through – like all seafood, if you over-cook them they’ll get a nasty, rubbery consistency which you’ll want to avoid.

• Taste it and check the seasoning.
• Place approx. 100 grams of unshelled prawns in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and pepper. Cook them through – a matter of 3 minutes.
• Set aside 2 tablespoons of the prawn sauce (to place on the top of your dish before you serve it) then place a lid on the prawns to help keep your sauce hot while you strain the linguine.
• Add the linguine to the prawns and mix everything together…again be gentle as you don’t want to break up the prawns.