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

Quick tiger prawns (shrimp) with pinot grigio, fresh tomato and basil sauce

It's always a struggle to think of something quick and delicious to make for a mid-week supper. This easy Italian-inspired recipe from my book Cooking With Wine solves the problem.

Serves 2

3 tablespoons of olive oil
200g/7oz raw fresh or frozen tiger prawns (shrimp)
1 small onion or 2 shallots, peeled and very finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
A small glass (about 100ml or half a cup) Pinot Grigio or other crisp dry white wine
4 medium sized or 2 large vine-ripened tomatoes (about 350g/12oz), peeled* and roughly chopped
6-8 basil leaves
Salt, sugar and freshly ground black pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan or wok, add the prawns/shrimp and fry briefly until they turn pink. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the chopped onion for a couple of minutes without browning. Add the garlic, stir then pour in the white wine and cook until it has almost evaporated. Add the tomatoes and their juice and cook for about 4-5 minutes, breaking them down with a fork or spatula to make a thick sauce.

Season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a small pinch of sugar. Roughly tear the basil leaves and stir them into the sauce. Return the prawns and any accumulated juices to the pan and heat through. Serve with rice and some peas or courgettes/zucchini.

Recommended wine match: the same wine you use to make the dish - a Pinot Grigio or other crisp dry white.

See also: Wine and seafood: the best pairings for prawns or shrimp

* to peel tomatoes make a cut in the skin with a small, sharp knife, put them in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them stand for a minute then drain and refresh with cold water. The skins should slip off easily.

Barbequed brochette of prawns, squid and courgette with sauce vierge

A stunning recipe from Bruce Poole's cookbook Bruce's Cookbook that shows barbeques don't have to be all about burgers and ribs.

Bruce's restaurant Chez Bruce in Wandsworth in south London, is a place where chefs - and food writers - like to go when they're off-duty. This is one of the simpler recipes in the book which by and large isn't one of those 'quick'n'easy' volumes but a serious collection of recipes for people who want to turn out Michelin-standard - but not fiddly - food. A must-buy for any cookbook collector.

Serves 4 as a main course or more in smaller form as part of a bigger barbecue offering

2 large courgettes, topped and tailed
salt
8 fresh baby squid, each one no longer than 10cm, cleaned by the fishmonger
12 large, raw prawns, thawed if frozen
1 lemon
For the sauce vierge
6 large ripe plum tomatoes, blanched and skinned
2 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
your best olive oil
1 small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and torn

Light the barbecue. Slice the courgettes lengthways on a mandolin into thin, 2mm-thick slices. Sprinkle with salt and leave to disgorge in a colander for half an hour or so.

To make the sauce vierge, separate the tomato flesh from the seeds and pulp and discard the latter. Cut the flesh into neat 1cm dice and combine with the shallots in a mixing bowl. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Leave for 15 minutes to encourage the salt to get to work with the toms. Add a good slug of olive oil and the torn basil. Adjust the seasoning and reserve at room temperature.

Dry the courgettes on absorbent kitchen paper and roll them up into tight coils. Fold each squid in half. Thread the folded squid, the courgette coils and the prawns on to the skewers evenly. Don’t worry unduly if there is an uneven number of courgettes.

Season the brochettes with salt and pepper just prior to grilling. Place them without any oil on to the barbecue and cook until pleasantly charred all over – about 5 minutes in total. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. Serve with the sauce vierge and perhaps some couscous, or a cold rice or pasta salad.

What to drink: Plenty of possibilities - a crisp, elegant Sauvignon Blanc, an Albario or a dry Italian white like a Vermentino would all be good. Or - and I suspect Bruce might well go for this himself - a bone dry Alsace grand cru Riesling.

 

Tagliolini au Gratin with Prawns and Treviso

A lovely Venetian pasta recipe from Jacob Kennedy’s fantastic Bocca di Lupo cookbook which was shortlsted for Best Cookery Book in last year's Guild of Food Writer Awards.

Jacob writes: While a few other dishes in this book, I am unashamed to say, have been inspired by the inimitable Da Fiore in San Polo, Venice, this one is an attempt to replicate exactly one of their signature dishes. So great is the feeling of discovery when you find a special restaurant serving a special dish, ou somehow take emotional ownership of it. But credit where credit’s due and it clearly isn’t due to me.

Mediterranean prawns - Sicilian red, Venetian spotted or Neapolitan violet-headed - are ideal, but there are plenty of alternatives. Live langoustines would be excellent - in either case, start with about 500g shell-on weight. Second to that, buy shell-on Atlantic prawns, peeled brown shrimp meat, or in the US peeled rock shrimps. Picked crab would be excellent and, if you’re really stuck, 220g potted shrimps would work well too - if you were to omit the butter from the ingredients below.

Serves 4-6 as a starter, 2-3 as a main

120g dried tagliolini or 150g fresh
50g butter
1/2 smallish red onion or 1 shallot, thinly sliced across the grain
1 medium head radicchio di Treviso (or a small radicchio, around 200g), shredded 3-5mm
200g peeled raw prawn tails
60ml white wine
200ml double cream
4 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

Melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and fry for a few moments, then add the radicchio and gently sauté for 4 or 5 minutes until wilted. Add the prawns, then the white wine and let it boil for a couple of minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the cream to the sauce at about the same time putting the tagliolini in a pan of boiling, slated water. Let both pots boil until the tagliolini are still somewhat undercooked (just over half the recommended cooking time which is already very short) and the sauce just runnier than cream.

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce; toss together over the heat for a minute until the pasta is well coated by the cream, season with salt and pepper and transfer to a baking dish about the size of a piece of A4 or a number of smaller individual ones. Sprinkle with parmesan and brown the top, either in a fiercely hot oven (on maximum) or under the grill. Serve immediately.

What to drink: Treviso often indicates a red but in this case, with prawns and a creamy sauce I’d opt for a crisp Italian white like a Soave, a Pinot Bianco or a Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige FB

Bocca di Lupo is charming small restaurant in Soho (tucked away down Archer Street just off Shaftesbury Avenue) serving authentic Italian regional food.