Quick and easy pasta recipe; a garlicky blend of Spanish & Italian cuisine.

A saucy, oily pot of garlic prawns with warm crusty bread. A charcuterie board of salty cured meats. Now that just sings “comfort food” to me. There’s something so simple yet so tasty about garlic prawns and, for Dan and I, it’s one of our favourite nibble-y dishes to have on the weekend. But when it comes to having them for dinner, a pot of prawns isn’t quite going to cut it right?

So what if we threw in another classic comfort food in there from a slightly different location in the world?

Pasta. (Because there’s nothing more like a hug in a bowl like pasta. I mean, just look at my OG sausage pasta recipe to prove that.)

I just loved the idea of blending the two classic meals of a fresh tomato spaghetti with juicy, garlic prawns to make the ultimate tapas inspired, Italian dish. It’s an incredibly easy dish to make too, with very little seasonings needed thanks to the bursts of flavour you get from the chorizo and plentiful garlic. Because everyone likes a simple mid-week recipe that doesn’t disappoint!

And not forgetting that classic charcuterie board flavour! Grill some gorgeous prosciutto ham, crumble it into tasty crispy shards and scatter on top of this gambas pil pil spaghetti. It’s such a simple dinner recipe but its bursting with well known European flavours.

Recipe ingredients

Serves 2 as a main. Approximately 35 to 40 minute cooking time.

• 150g raw or cooked king prawns
• 150g spaghetti
• 135g fresh plum or cherry tomatoes
• 80g spicy chorizo
• 30g of prosciutto
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1 lemon
• Half a red onion
• 50ml of white wine
• 2 teaspoons of smoked sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon of chopped chilli
• Salt & pepper
• A handful of fresh parsley to garnish

Cooking utensils

• 1 saucepan
• 1 large pan
• Sharp knife
• Tongs
• Wooden spoon
• Chopping board

1. Let’s get the chopping out of the way. Finely dice the red onion and cut your tomatoes in half, then set both aside separately.
2. Dice your garlic cloves, and set aside, before peeling the outer skin of the chorizo and cutting into chunks.
3. Fill up your saucepan with water, add a good amount of salt and begin bringing it to a boil ready for your spaghetti.
4. Whack on your grill, lay out your slices of prosciutto on your rack and grill for about 8 minutes. Keep a close eye – you want it lovely and crispy but not burnt! When it’s done, crush and snap the prosciutto with your hands into a bowl and set aside ready for later.
5. Add your larger pan to the hob and turn it onto a medium heat, allowing the pan to get warm before adding in your chorizo.
6. Brown your chorizo off for about 3 – 5 minutes. It should seep this gorgeous red oil which will help flavour the dish. Remove from the chorizo and set aside.
7. Into that lovely chorizo oil, add your diced onion and sauté for a couple of minutes.
8. Tip in your halved plum tomatoes and cook for a further 5 to 7 minutes or so, letting the tomatoes blister slightly.
9. Time for the all important garlic! Tip that in, giving everything a good stir for about 30 seconds.
10. Pour in your white wine. You want to simmer off the wine so it’s almost totally absorbed. Then add your seasonings – paprika and chopped chilli paste.
11. Add your spaghetti to your boiling water to get that cooking.
12. You’ll find that everything will look like it’s blending into a paste in your larger pan. This is perfectly fine, just keep giving it all a good stir, as well as a real good grind of black pepper and a sprinkle of salt. Then lower the heat just a smidge so it’s more medium to low.
13. Your spaghetti will take about 10 minutes. So about 5 minutes in, you’ll want to return to your large pan and add your prawns in, along with your cooked chorizo. Cook until the prawns are lovely and pink.
14. When your spaghetti is ready, take about two ladles of salty pasta water and add it to your large pan. This will loosen up that tomato sauce and make it glisten.
15. Drain your spaghetti.
16. Just before you add the spaghetti to the sauce, squeeze in half a lemon. Then tip in your spaghetti and give everything a real good mix – I find kitchen tongs help with this!
17. Dish up your pasta and grab those tasty shards of prosciutto, sprinkling on top. Finish with a last squeeze of lemon and a flutter of parsley leaves and enjoy!

Tasty tips!

• To make this a little more budget, go for some cooked medium prawns or even cold water prawns. You could also omit the chorizo, simply use olive oil in the beginning instead.
• Like the spice? Dollop in another tablespoon of chopped chilli, or garnish with some dried chilli flakes instead!
• Adding a splash of olive oil to the boiling water can help stop your spaghetti getting stuck together.
• If you’re avoiding alcohol, the white wine can be omitted totally. I would suggest going slightly heavier on the lemon juice just to bring that sharpness the white wine would offer, or alternatively use chicken stock to deglaze your pan.