What’s Cooking Wednesday: Linguine agli Scampi

11 CommentsWednesday • January 3, 2007 • by michelle

Last week I teased your tastebuds by suggesting that maybe P’s linguine agli scampi would be this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday featured dish.

And here we are.

This is a very easy recipe and looks pretty classy when it’s all finished too–as well it should for the price of prawns these days. And probably all days, but I only know about these, so I’m limiting the generalization.

Linguine agli scampi (Linguine with prawns)
(serves 4-6)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 whole, peeled cloves garlic
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• 20 prawns
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 tablespoons parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• peperoncino to taste
• linguine
• salted water to boil linguine

1. As this sauce only takes about a half hour from start to finish, go ahead and put your water on for the linguine before you start doing anything else. Wash and cut tomatoes in half and put aside.

2. Put the olive oil in a pan on medium heat and sauté garlic until just turning light golden brown.

3. Now here it gets a little complicated. Put everything else in the pan. Yes, add the tomatoes, prawns, wine, salt, peperoncino, and most of the parsley (save some to garnish).

4. Cover and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

As you can see, we cook the prawns as they are, heads and all. If you’d rather shell them first, by all means, snap off their heads, devein if you must (shouldn’t that really be a hyphenated word?), and get on with it. The recipe is still going to go pretty much the same, but be careful not to overcook the fish (thereby completely losing your prawns in the sauce).

5. So while the sauce is just about ready, drop your linguine in the boiling water and cook till al dente. In the meantime, take the prawns from the pan and put aside. When the linguine is done, add it to the pan (the sauce will be thin) and mix well.

6. Serve each dish with a few prawns and fresh parsley on top.

Buon appetito!