The beauty of this dish is in the sauce. It’s creamy yet not heavy and full of shrimp flavor thanks to the shrimp heads. Making an actual bisque is too time consuming for what is in reality a pasta dinner. This method cheats a bit from bisque making technique without all the hassle of blending and fine straining and all. I cheat a bit and thicken with cornstarch not double cream.
The added flavor comes in from roasting the garlic, tomatoes and shrimp with some chilli and herbs. Make it as spicy or not as you want by playing with the chilli content or removing it all together.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
For the Roasted Shrimp:
300 gm cherry tomatoes
12 garlic cloves halved
A few thyme sprigs
1 tsp dry thyme
1/2 tsp chilli powder
Salt, pepper
3 tbsps olive oil
600 gm medium to medium large shrimp, shelled, washed and de-veined
Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
8 large fat cloves garlic sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste
700 gm shrimp heads, washed under running water
350ml milk
1 can chopped tomato or 400 gm fresh tomatoes skinned and blended.
50 ml milk
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp cream (optional)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chilli
2 or 3 sprigs of thyme
Pasta:
400 gm dried fettuccine
Lots of salted water
Preheat oven to 200°C or 180°C fan forced /convection oven
Method:
- In a roasting tray, mix together the cherry tomatoes, garlic halves, 1/2 tsp of thyme, thyme sprigs, pinch of salt and 2 tbsps of olive oil.
- In a deep bowl, marinate the prawns with the other 1/2 tsp of thyme, pepper, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and 1 tbsp of oil.
Set both aside for now.
Now on to making the sauce:
- Place a large pan over medium heat and add the 1 tbsp of olive oil to heat.
- Sauté the sliced garlic until aromatic but not colored. Remove from the pot and set aside.
- Add the shrimp heads and the tbsp of tomato paste to the hot pot.
- Sauté till the color starts changing then add the 350 ml milk and canned or blended tomatoes. Don’t brown or burn the heads or they will become bitter.
- With a big spoon or potato masher start to gently bash the shrimp heads to release their flavour. This is actually what we are after, the shrimp essence!
- Leave to simmer gently on a very low heat for 20 minutes.
- When time is up, use a large slotted spoon and spoon out the heads in a large eyed sieve fitted over a large bowl to catch the dripping sauce. Use the potato masher to squeeze out every last bit of sauce trapped in them!
- Return the sauce caught in the bowl back to the pot. Discard the heads.
- In a small cup blend together the remaining 50 ml of milk with the cornstarch. Set aside.
- Now add back in the sautéed garlic, and the remaining sauce ingredients to your pot.
- Start stirring in the milk cornstarch slurry and when it starts to simmer it will thicken slightly.
- Taste and adjust your sauce. The sauce should taste predominantly of shrimp with hints of chilli and thyme, not too tomatoey or sour. Salt will take away bitterness and sugar will balance any sourness, if you add more than the 1/2 tsp sugar, take care to not make it too sweet! The sauce should be a “rose” color and not red.
- Turn off the heat and leave covered till the pasta and shrimp are ready. Remember to remove the thyme sprigs though before you add the fettuccine.
- Place a large pot of salted water on the heat to boil for the pasta. Once it’s boiling add in the fettuccine follow packet instructions for cooking it al dente but take it out a couple of minutes early. That’s so it continues to cook in the sauce and absorb the shrimp flavour!
- Place the roasting tray with tomatoes in the oven for 15 min.
- Once done, turn the heat to 220°C and take out the tray.
- Add in the shrimp with the tomatoes and with a large spoon mix them in lightly (without squashing the tomatoes) and try to have them in one even layer.
- Place back in the oven for 5 min.
- In the meantime your pasta should be cooked.
- Strain the pasta right into the warm sauce and turn the heat back on to low. Keep some of the pasta cooking liquid, about 1/2 cup just in case.
- Coat the fettuccine with the sauce and keep on a very low heat to keep warm till the shrimp is ready.
- Take the roasting tray out of the oven.
- Set aside a few of the bigger shrimp to use for presentation. Remove and discard the thyme sprigs.
- Spoon the roasting tray contents into the pasta and lightly mix in and leave on the heat for a minute or two. If any of the shrimp look a bit under, don’t worry as the heat from the pasta and sauce will cook it through.
- Taste again for any final seasoning adjustments. You can add a little of the pasta cooking water at this stage to adjust the sauce thickness but not too much please.
- Dish out and serve immediately.
You can sprinkle a small amount of chopped parsley over the finished dish for presentation and colour.
Pasta doesn’t like to wait! Bon appetito!
Riham's Messy Kitchen! 