Sautéed giant prawns with garlic, oil and chilli

Gamberoni con aglio, olio e peperoncino

By: Antonio Carluccio
From: Simple Cooking
Serves: 4
Photographer: Alastair Hendy

Extremely simple but very impressive, this dish follows my cooking motto, MOF, MOF (Minimum Of Fuss, Maximum Of Flavour). However, you do need the freshest prawns you can lay your hands on. The wonderful Imperial prawns are best for this recipe, so talk to your fishmonger and see whether he can get hold of some for you.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
16	fresh giant prawns
100ml	olive oil
1	lemon, juiced
3	garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1	red chilli, finely chopped

Method

Peel only the body of the prawns, leaving the heads intact (they are full of juice).
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan until it just starts to sizzle. Add the prawns and, over a high heat now, cook them on both sides until they change colour, head included. This should take about 3 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and add the garlic and chilli.
Serve the prawns on a portion of the sauce in individual bowls. To eat, remove the heads from the prawns and squeeze all the wonderful juices into the sauce.

Leftovers

If you find yourself in the unlikely situation of having any of these prawns leftover, simply make them into a delicious pasta sauce. Prepare a tomato sauce of either fresh or canned chopped tomatoes. Roughly chop the prawns and add them to the sauce together with a handful of chopped parsley.