Prawns with Ouzo, Orzo and Courgette

A really lovely summery dish from Marianna Leivaditaki of Morito's Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea. The tip of roasting the prawn shells before you make the stock is genius though, having made it, I think you can get away with using fewer of the other ingredients in the stock - see my note at the bottom of the recipe.

Marianna writes: This dish is delicate and velvety and it’s perfect in the summer when the courgettes are at their best. Make sure you get fresh prawns for this and their size is irrelevant as long as they are so fresh that they are almost still alive. Pick small tender andfirm courgettes and if they happen to have flowers attached to them then add these too.

Serves 4

— 400g (14oz) fresh prawns, peeled, shells reserved

For the prawn stock

— 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

— 1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped

— 1 celery stick, roughly chopped

— 1 red pepper, roughly chopped

— 1 white onion, roughly chopped

— 3 bay leaves

— A pinch of saffron

— 200ml (7fl oz) white wine

— 50ml (2fl oz) brandy

 

— 1 tbsp good-quality butter

— 200g (7oz) orzo pasta

— 3 pale green courgettes, very thinly sliced

— 500g (1lb 2oz) cherry tomatoes, quartered

— 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

— 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seeds

— 20ml (4 tsp) Greek ouzo

— Zest of 1 (small) lemon

— Zest of 1 (small) orange

— 1 handful of mint leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4.

Place the prawn shells on a baking tray and dry out in the oven for about 20–30 minutes. This really helps to concentrate and increase the flavour of the shells.

Heat the oil in a pan and add all the stock ingredients. Toss around and cook gently for 10 minutes with no water. You want to caramelize and sweeten the vegetables. Add the prawn shells to the pan and cover with water. Simmer gently for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the stock to rest for a while before passing it through a sieve and reserving the liquid.

Heat the butter in a pan and add the orzo. Stir gently for a couple of minutes until it’s all shiny and coated in the butter. Add half the courgettes and all the tomatoes together with the oil and fennel seeds. Increase the heat and start adding the prawn stock in batches – you may not need to use all of it.

The orzo will take about 15 minutes to cook. Just before it’s ready, add the remaining courgettes, ouzo and lemon and orange zest. Finally add the prawns and check the seasoning. Cook until the prawns turn pink. You want this dish to be loose and juicy – a bit like a risotto. Serve with the fresh mint scattered over the top.

If you have any prawn stock left over, freeze it to use another time.

Having made this recipe I think you could get away with leaving out the celery, red pepper and brandy from the stock and I would add the wine once you've sweated off the vegetables (then top up with water). You could add a bit more ouzo (I used 2 tbsp in total) but go easy on the orange zest which could otherwise dominate the dish.

What to drink: See my recommendations in Match of the Week.

Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea by Marianna Leivaditaki is published by Kyle Books at £26. Photograph ©Elena Heatherwick www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Prawn, lime, peanut and herb rice noodles

If you've always thought cooking for yourself is a bit dispiriting buy Signe Johansen's book Solo which is full of delicious and inspiring recipes like this zingy pad thai-ish dish of prawn noodles.

Signe writes: This is a super dish to rustle up when you’re tired and hungry - it takes just minutes to prepare and can be eaten either hot or at room temperature. An ice-cold beer alongside wouldn’t go amiss, but a glass of green or jasmine tea also makes an excellent accompaniment.

WARNING: this recipe includes peanuts

Serves 1 (generously. It would easily stretch to two FB)

100g thick or thin rice noodles

vegetable or sunflower oil, for frying

150g raw shelled prawns (or defrosted frozen ones)

1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 green chilli, finely chopped

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

small bunch of mint and/or coriander, roughly chopped

1 small carrot, coarsely grated or cut into ribbons with a vegetable peeler

small handful of salted peanuts, roughly crushed

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

lime wedge, to serve (optional)

For the sauce

grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed limes

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soft light brown sugar or palm sugar

1 red chilli, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely grated

Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.

Cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions until al dente, drain,

toss them in the sauce and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a skillet or frying pan over a medium heat, add the prawns and fry for a few minutes until golden-pink and opaque – remove them from the pan as soon as they’re done so they don’t become tough. Add the garlic, chilli and spring onion to the same pan once you’ve removed the prawns and fry gently for a couple of minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and return the prawns to the pan so all the flavours blend.

Serve the noodles in a shallow pasta bowl or on a dinner plate and scatter over the prawns, herbs, carrot and crushed peanuts. Season to taste and add a lime wedge, if you wish.

Variation: Feel free to add other vegetables such as chopped pepper, broccoli or beansprouts (raw or cooked). I sometimes like to add edamame beans, broad beans and grated courgette, too.

What to drink: I had a bottle of Japanese koshu wine open which went perfectly but a dry riesling or grüner veltliner would also be delicious

Extracted from Solo by Signe Johansen published by Bluebird Books at £16.99. Photograph © Patricia Niven.

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

A clever little recipe from Jack Monroe's brilliant new book Cooking on a Bootstrap which would be perfect for a shared student house or anyone on a tight budget.

Jack - a celebrated anti-poverty campaigner has first hand experience of living on the breadline but she also has the ingenuity to create delicious food out of simple, cheap ingredients - this one is particularly impressive as it makes a creamy carbonara-style sauce out of a can of cannellini beans.

Jack writes: This pasta dish is packed with protein, but also a very good healthy substitute for cream-packed pasta dishes. As with all bean-based dishes, they benefit from a long, slow cook, so the more time you have to give this, the better the results.

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

Serves 3-4

1 large onion (about 200g), finely sliced

2–4 fat garlic cloves (depending on how much of a fan you are), minced or finely chopped

2 tbsp oil

a pinch of salt

¼ tsp fennel seeds

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (240g drained weight)

2 tbsp lemon juice

a few sprigs of parsley or herb of your choice, to finish

cooked pasta of your choice, to serve (I'd suggest about 300g dried weight)

1 Pop the onion and garlic into a large saucepan with the oil. Bring to gentle heat, add a pinch of salt and the fennel seeds and stir lovingly. There’s a lot of love going into this dish along the way, it’s got the subtle soothing nature of a risotto, so clear the decks and use it as a de-stresser while you stand and stir.

2 Toss the cannellini beans into the pan, squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and cook on low heat for 10 minutes to soften the onions.

3 Add 200ml cold water, then turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stir, and leave to cook for another 10 minutes. The cannellinis should start to break down and self-purée, thickening the sauce. Stir well and gradually add another 200ml water (you might not need all of it) until most of the beans have broken down and you’re left with a soft, creamy, sweet, garlicky, comforting gorgeous sauce. Stir through the herbs.

4 Stir through your pasta, or allow to cool, spoon into jars or other containers, label and pop in the fridge until dinner time.

TIP

• Fennel seeds are not essential if they aren’t the sort of thing you have lying around but I’m a Big Fan of them – as a store-cupboard spice, a couple of little fennel seeds go a long, long way.

What to drink: Keeping to the budget theme get in the habit of replacing white wine with dry cider. Much cheaper and better than most cheap whites on the market.

Extracted from Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe published by Bluebird Books at £15.99. You can get 40% off this price if you order it through her blog and/or order one for a foodbank (again with a 40% discount) by entering the code FBNK2808 on this site.

Mamma Lucinda’s Pizzoccheri

This recipe, the subject of my Match of the Week, was so delicious I've persuaded Christine Smallwood, whose lovely book An Appetite for Lombardy it comes from, to share it on the site.

The recipe comes from Anna Bertola of Trattoria Altavilla in Bianzone. As Christine says "Anna uses delicious local mountain potatoes and serves very generous portions. You may well only require half of the quantity given here, unless you’ve had a particularly energetic day."

If you don't have the time or inclination to make the pasta from scratch you can buy a dried version from Italian delis such as Lina in Soho.

Serves 6

Pizzoccheri:

600g buckwheat flour

300g white 00 flour

1 tsp salt

400-500ml water, as needed

 

300g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

150g Savoy cabbage, cut into wide strips

300g young Valtellina Casera DOP cheese or Fontina, thinly sliced

150g Parmesan, grated

1/2 white onion

150g butter (this may well be authentic but seems an awful lot of butter. Think I'd probably use a third as much! FB)

Salt and pepper, to taste

To make the pizzoccheri, mix the two flours and the salt together. Add the water and knead for about 10 minutes. Roll out to about 3mm thick with a rolling pin. Cut out lengths of about 8cm wide and then cut these widthwise so that you have tagliatelle of about 7mm wide

Cook the potatoes in salted water and after about 5 minutes add the cabbage. When the water returns to the boil, add the pizzoccheri and bring the water back to a gentle boil.

After about 10 minutes drain some of the pizzoccheri, potatoes and cabbage with a perforated spoon, placing them into a baking dish. Place some slices of cheese on top, along with some Parmesan and then continue alternating layers of pizzoccheri and cheese.

Fry the onion in the butter and when browned, scatter over the top of the pizzoccheri. Serve on a pre-heated plate, with freshly ground pepper to taste.

What to drink: A Valtellina red such as the one we tried at Wild Artichokes or a Carterìa Valtellina Superiore Valgella D.O.C.G which is made from Chiavennasca, the local name for Nebbiolo.

This recipe comes from An Appetite for Lombardy by Christine Smallwood which is available to buy off her website for £18.