Prawn Linguine

Here is one of the rare non-oriental dish I make occassionally. I have an aversion towards rich foods such as those made with cheese or cream or other dairy products, so the sauce used here is heavily based on tomatoes and various herbs and spices.


Below are the main ingredients for the sauce. The veg used are onions, garlic, red capsicum, and a medium tomato. I use pre-cooked prawns as raw prawns gives out too much liquid and dilute the sauce too much.



Firstly, I fry all the veg together, but careful not to brown them too much, as they still have to be stewed later on. I add mixed herbs and a generous portion of chopped dried parsley. Better to use fresh if you have it at hand though.



Then I pour in the can if chopped tomatoes, and also one T of tomato puree. After this, I add some stock. Knorr's chicken stock if you dont have any homemade ones at hand. I also add salt and sugar to taste. Sugar is VERY important here, otherwise the dish will taste too sour. Then I let it stew for about 10 - 15 minutes till all the veg goes just soft, but not to a pulp.



I also ensure that the liquid is reduced significantly, according to how thick I want the final product to be. Then I add the prawns. Remember that the prawns will let out juice as well and dilute the sauce, so do allow for this.


Give it a good stir till the prawns start to curl up. This should take only about 3 minutes. Any longer and the prawns will be overcooked. I also add the fresh tomato at this point. I know it sounds like a lot of tomatoes, but each different form of tomatoes gives it additional and unique flavours.



Then pour over your pasta and serve! I didn't bother showing how I cooked the pasta because if you need instructions on how to do that, then you probably will not be interested in reading this anyway. ;-)