A delicate buttery Prawn Pasta

Inspired by Donna Hay this! And unlike another Oz show – Kylie Kwong, I really enjoy Donna Hay for the languid pace it sets. And the picture perfect view of the ocean from her outdoor grill!

For me, prawns and garlic are simply inseparable. My earliest memories of eating prawns – back in the early 80’s – come from a time when procuring prawns in Delhi was often very hard, and when you did they would be so frightfully expensive, that you could afford no more than 250 or 500gms of the stuff. But those early memories are all infused with garlic in one fashion or other. That was mostly oriental cooking back then, but this brilliant dish combines some of that heavenly fragrance with the simplicity of italian pasta dishes.

This dish needs

A few large knobs of butter.

2 tbsp of olive oil.

3-4 garlic pods, sliced thin

200gms prawns of any size you prefer

a tsp of chilli flakes

a tbsp of lime juice and some lemon zest

garlic, chilli flakes. some lemon zest.

salt & pepper to taste.

Spaghetti – 200 gms (if you’re serving 2 or 3 people)

And get some garlic bread, toasted – on the side at the end as you plate the dish

Parmesan cheese – 2 tbsp – shaved or grated

C00k your spaghetti as per instructions and reserve half a cup of the starchy water that got left over.

In a big pan, melt the butter and the oil together. Add the garlic and let soften. Add the chilli flakes and the lemon zest. After about a minute  add in the prawns. And a dash of salt and pepper to your taste. On a high heat, the prawns will take no more than 90-120 seconds to cook fully… so be judicious. You dont want to overcook them at all. Add the cooked spaghetti to the cooked prawns, toss the spaghetti to blend everything in and then toss in the lemon juice (also at this stage if your pasta is looking dry, bung in a couple of tbsp of the starchy water), and the parsley leaves broken with your hands.

Plate the pasta, sprinkle with some more fresh pepper and a tbsp of the parmesan cheese. Serve with pride! Its simple, but its one of the best seafood pastas you will eat! At our home, we cant seem to get enough of this – and last time out I’m told Vedika added some canned crab meat since we were short on prawns. Am sure that would be a fabulous variation as well.

My home-style veg lasagna.

Again. Feel like a bit of an idiot not having taken snaps of the finished lasagna. This is the best work-in-progress shot I got!

I cant recall why I made this. It was a few weeks ago, and I recall there were many people getting over on a Sunday afternoon for beer and pasta. I remember my kitchen being a very very warm and busy place that morning. On the menu was this veg lasagna, a bolognaise lasagna, the roast veg (posted just before), garlic bread, and some spaghetti with the same meat sauce. This was the early part of the day – the kitchen is still neat-ish

The meat sauce is one that I have been working on for many years now, and its become a favourite for both the girls, and for many of their friends that drop in unexpectedly! But more on that one in a separate piece later.

The veg lasagna is one with tomatoes and roast aubergines & yellow courgettes.

Let’s get started by getting this stuff together.

Lasagna sheets – cooked as per pack instructions. For a bowl the size above (serves 3), you would need about 8 sheets on the outside.
A couple of tomatoes – sliced thick
An aubergine – sliced thin (say 5mm pieces)
A yellow courgette – sliced similarly.
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil
Ricotta (or cheddar) cheese. Better ricotta than cheddar honestly!
Some grated mozzarella – good if you can grab some of the fresh, watery one. Else stay with the frozen one you buy for your home pizzas.
A couple of eggs
Shredded basil leaves.
Some cinnamon powder (optional)
Dry crushed basil 
Some grated parmesan cheese
And an oven – you’d want this pre-heated to 180° celsius.

Start off by seasoning the sliced aubergine and courgette with salt and pepper, and then (in very little olive oil) almost dry roasting these till they are nicely browned and cooked. I use a standard roasting pan with the striations in it – that gives the veggies that nice burnt look.

And by now of course, you should have cooked the lasagna sheets as well. And sliced the tomatoes.

Get hold of another bowl and break the eggs into it. Spoon in 4 or 5 tbsp of the ricotta, the mozzarella (4-5 tbsp), a couple of spoons of milk and salt & pepper. Whisk all this together with a whisk or fork..

Get started on the assembly now and get a deep oven-safe dish – say about 4 or 5″ deep. Start at the bottom with sliced tomatoes, sprinkle with salt & pepper & basil powder and some basil leaves. Next line up some of the sliced aubergines and then the sliced courgettes (or vice versa really). Finally line up the pasta sheets on top of the veggies. On top of the pasta sheets, liberally scoop in the egg and cheese blend. And that completes one layer.

Simply repeat a couple of times till you’re almost at the surface of the dish. Make sure you finish with the egg/cheese blend. Your final surface will be a generous sprinkling of the grated parmesan.

Cover the dish with foil. 
Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for another 6-8 minutes or till you have a nice brown top that looks heavenly!

Serve out! Garlic bread’s a must, and the roast veggies will go nicely as well!