What to eat tonight: 20-minute pesto prawn pasta

Making the fresh pesto sauce takes about as long as the pasta needs to cook, so you can turn Gino D’Aampo’s recipe around in record time – perfect for hungry mouths.

This recipe was created during an argument between my boys: Rocco wanted pasta with garlic, prawns and rocket leaves and Luci wanted pesto. Here we are – basil pesto prawn pasta.

It really works; we all absolutely loved it and I got to please both boys without turning my kitchen into a restaurant! Please make sure you only buy fresh basil to make the pesto as the flavour is so much better.

Farfalle al pesto Genovese e gamberi
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 60g basil leaves
• 50g pine nuts
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 130ml extra virgin olive oil
• 30g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 150g cooked peeled large prawns
• 500g farfalle
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

1  Bring 5 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan with 1 tablespoon of fine salt. Put the basil, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor. Drizzle in the oil and blitz until smooth.
2  Transfer the basil mixture to a large serving bowl and fold in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and fold in the prawns. Set aside.
4  Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente. To get the al dente perfect bite, cook the pasta for 1 minute less than instructed on the packet and always keep the pan uncovered. A good-quality dried pasta will take 8-10 minutes to cook.
5  Just before the pasta is ready to be drained, remove 4 tablespoons of the boiling water from the pan and add to the bowl with the pesto mixture.
6  Once the pasta is cooked, drain and tip it into the bowl with the pesto mixture.
7  Fold together for 30 seconds allowing the pesto to coat the pasta. Serve immediately.

Extracted from Pronto! Let’s Cook Italian in 20 Minutes by Gino D’Acampo (Kyle Books, approx €18.50).

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