Preparation time
20 Minutes
Cooking time
30 minutes
Serves
5 as an entrée, 3-4 as a main.
A Pinot Grigio is a great choice with this Alessandro Pavoni's flavoursome pasta. It's a refreshing, juicy and textural style with lovely white fruit depth, and a deliciously vibrant, fresh and long finish. A light red would also be a delight.
Ingredients
500g short pasta, orecchiette or farfalle
50g salt
1 medium-sized brown onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
20ml extra virgin olive oil
2 punnets of cherry tomatoes
1 pinch of saffron
¼ bunch of basil, leaves only
¼ bunch of parsley, leaves only
1 pinch of dry hot chilli powder, or fresh chopped chilli to taste
15 king prawns, peeled and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
Recipe by: Alessandro Pavoni
Photography by: John Paul Urizar
Styling by: Michaela Le Compte
Method
1. Place a pot of water on to boil and add salt. When boiling, add pasta.
2. While pasta is coming up to boil, put a casserole pan on the stovetop with half the extra virgin olive oil, the chilli, garlic, onion. Bring it to the fry point, turn down to medium heat and fry for 1–2 minutes until onion is soft. Bring back to high heat and add all the tomatoes. Cook for 6–7 minutes.
3. Add a ladle of the water from the boiling pasta, add saffron, adjust with salt and pepper to taste and cook for a further 4–6 minutes. Drain and reserve some pasta water.
4. Add drained pasta to the sauce and keep cooking to allow pasta to absorb the sauce. Add prawns and stir while cooking. If it’s looking dry or the pasta is not cooked, add a bit of the reserved pasta water.
5. Add the remaining olive oil, basil, and parsley. Stir for another minute, and serve.
Alessandro’s Note: My rule of thumb for cooking standout pasta is for every 100g of pasta use 1L of water and 10g of salt. Drain the pasta 3 minutes ahead of time and keep some of the water on the side to add later if the pasta looks a little dry.
Wine Match
Pinot Grigio