by Stephen Poulitsis

Created on: August 28, 2010

Pasta dishes often tick all the boxes for speedy, tasty, filling meals. They take no longer to concoct than the pasta takes to cook, so give maximum reward for minimum kitchen effort. Pasta has the added plus of serving one or twenty, so is a fantastic choice when friends turn up unexpectedly and ravenous. It tastes terrific eaten outdoors.

The pasta sauce in this recipe can be served with or without the pasta, as it takes its origins from a Spanish Tapas dish. It can be an appetizer when served alone or a main when combined with pasta. Either way the dish demands crusty fresh bread to dip in the sauce.

This is my recipe for hot chilli prawns served with pasta, and calls for whole shrimps or prawns, fresh if possible, cooked in their shells after being deveined. If you can’t get whole shrimps in their shells then small shrimps can be used in their place. You will need for 2 people.

16 Fresh shrimps in their shells.

2 Garlic cloves, sliced thinly.

 2 Shallots, sliced thinly.

2 Red chilli peppers, chopped – if you like hot food don’t discard the seeds.

Olive oil.

To prepare the dish.

1. Put the pasta on to cook. This dish works well with any pasta but goes particularly well with fine spaghetti.

2. Prepare the shrimps by slitting the shells and removing the veins, but leave the shells, heads and tails on.

3. Heat plenty of oil in a deep frying pan or skillet pan.

4.Toss in the onion, garlic and chilli and cook for one minute.

5. Add the shrimps and fry for another two minutes.

That’s it: in just three minutes the sauce is ready and should be rich with crispy garlic slices and the hot bite of chilli. Add the sauce to the drained pasta. Soak up the delicious scented olive oil with the crusty bread and enjoy a healthy, tasty and spicy dish.

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