Eastington@Paddington

from The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano

Apart from cutting the basil into chiffonade (thin strips), and using less tomatoes it could easily be Italian. This is super quick, ie the sauce is prepared in the time the pasta becomes al dente, about 9 minutes. 

Ingredients: Butter, EVOO, dried red pepper flakes, garlic, prawns, 
canned diced tomatoes with juice, linguine pasta, & basil

Per person, about 100g each of the prawns and tomatoes, and 80g of pasta

The prawns are flash fried in a combined butter/EVOO sauce with garlic and chilli powder over medium-high heat. As this usually results in the prawns curling up, I thought I would try a method I read on serious eats, borrowed from Chinese cooking, which is marinating the prawns in baking soda and salt for bout 10 minutes before frying.

It certainly resulted in the prawns being plumper and more tender. Apparently “The baking soda raises the pH of the shellfish’s muscle, which alters the electric charge of the muscle protein. As a result, the muscle fibers stay slightly apart from each other instead of clenching together, and the moisture that’s between the fibers stays between the fibers.” https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/4247-for-plump-and-juicy-shrimp-reach-for-the-baking-soda#

The prawns were then deglazed with Noilly Prat (rather than white wine following the series eats article) and finished cooking in the chopped tomatoes. Add the al dente pasta to the pan with the basil, and serve. Simple and quick.

Despite me adding extra chilli powder and seasoning, the dish needed some acid such as lemon juice. This is most likely a result of the baking soda raising the pH which probably reduced the acidity