This one is inspired by a recipe from a restaurant called Monica’s that used to be at the bottom of the hill in Torrenueva where we lived in Spain. It was a really amazing Italian restaurant with truly authentic dishes, all home made in the restaurant. Their Tiramisu was the best I’ve ever had, but that recipe was an extremely well guarded secret. Monica’s brother Luca came up with this pasta recipe which I thought was a really unusual mix but absolutely delicious, so much so that I was never able to order anything else! This is my interpretation of it.
Linguine Luca
Course: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes15
minutes25
minutesCombining the flavours of seafood, curry and basil in a creamy sauce, served with Linguine, this recipe sounds odd but tastes amazing!
Ingredients
500g Linguine, dried or freshly made
2 tbsp Olive Oil
15-20 medium sized quality Prawns
250ml Fresh Cream or Soya Cream
12 fresh Basil Leaves
1 tsp Curry Power (mild or medium Madras is good)
Sea Salt
- To serve
Grated Parmesan
Black Pepper
Directions
- Put on a large pot of water to boil, to cook the linguine.
- The sauce doesn’t take long to make, so start preparing it when the water is just boiled and you are ready to cook the pasta.
- Once the water is boiling, add a tablespoon of salt and then add the linguine to the boiling water. Bring to the boil and continue to cook until the linguine is done (al dente).
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the prawns and fry gently for a couple of minutes until they are lightly cooked on both sides but not quite fully cooked through. Remove to a bowl for later.
- Add the cream to the frying pan and warm up in the prawn flavoured oil. Add some of the curry powder and a little sea salt. Taste and add more of both until you have a balanced flavour of mild curry.
- Tear the basil leaves into the sauce and cook gently for about 2-3 minutes. If the sauce starts to thicken or reduce too much, add a little milk to loosen it up. You may need to balance with a little more salt.
- Add the prawns back to the sauce and mix in well.
- Once the sauce is ready, strain the linguine and add it to the sauce. Mix well to completely coat the linguine with the sauce and cook gently for another minute or two but don’t allow the sauce to dry up.
- Serve immediately topped with freshly ground black pepper and some grated parmesan cheese if you like.
