Yesterday evening I felt like making something different from the usual stuff I cook. Not that I always cook the same things but I felt more experimental than usual.
I love to improvise with what I have in the fridge and to try unusual combinations like this one: prawns and n’duja, the wonderfully tasty hot salami paste with red chili peppers from Calabria.
In the fridge I had some Black Tiger prawns already de-shelled and de-veined plus a bunch of spring onions and two big organic courgettes. This is the end result of my little experiment: a nice and hot surf & turf dish that I’ve enjoyed with two glasses of cold Villa Antinori Bianco.
Mixing together ingredients that are not exactly an obvious combination I managed to create a captivating dish that really surprised me. The recipe?
Here it is.
Surf & Turf My Way
Serves 2
300 gr. clean Black Tiger prawns
1 middle-sized red onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of n’duja (hot salami-chili paste from Calabria)
6-7 Spring onions
2 big courgettes or 4 small ones
e.v. olive oil
1 teaspoon of brown cane sugar
1/2 glass dry white wine
Peel the onion and cut it in rings (not too thick). Fry them in olive oil together with the peeled ad sliced garlic. Once the onion is well cooked (soft and glazy), caramelize it lightly by adding the sugar and let it cook a bit further if it’s still too wet.
Remove and discard the ends of the zucchini. Cut the zucchini lengthwise in halves and then slice them not too thinly.
Add the courgette slices to the caramelized onion and let them cook with the lid on the pan until reasonably tender (they have to be still a bit al dente).
Add the Spring onions cut in chunks of about 3-4 cm and the n’duja. Let everything simmer for another minute stirring regularly.
Add the prawns, season with salt and cook further for a maximum of 3 more minutes, stirring from time to time. About one minute before ending the cooking process add the white wine, stir and let it evaporate.
Serve with steamed basmati rice.
Wow, this looks gorgeous! Now if I could only find n'duja around here...
Posted by: Frank | June 26, 2011 at 03:36 PM