Nicola Dusi's pasta cooked in saffron stock with prawns and pipis
Prep 20 mins
Cook 45 mins
Serves 4
Difficulty 2
“A little trick that works a treat is cooking pasta in flavoured stock,” says Nicola Dusi of Melbourne’s The Hardware Club. “Saffron stock is great paired with seafood. If you like the flavour of saffron to be more prominent, melt the butter the previous day and add a generous pinch of saffron to it, then refrigerate it overnight. This will give the pasta even more of a yellow colour.” Leftover stock can be frozen or used to make risotto Milanese.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp finely grated ginger
Pinch chilli flakes
½ onion, finely chopped
500g raw prawns, peeled, flesh coarsely chopped (reserve heads and shells for stock)
25g butter
250g pipis
125ml white wine
300g spaghettoni
SAFFRON STOCK
Reserved prawn heads and shells
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
½ onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 lemon leaves or makrut (kaffir) lime leaves
2 large pinches saffron threads
1. For saffron stock, combine ingredients and 4 litres water in a stock pot. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer until stock is well-flavoured (30 minutes). Strain, reserving stock (discard solids), and season to taste. Set aside to cool then refrigerate until required, or bring to the boil if using straight away.
2. Heat olive oil in a large deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger and chilli and stir until fragrant (10-20 seconds). Add onion and stir until almost tender (5 minutes), then add prawns and butter and stir occasionally over high heat until prawns just change colour (1 minute). Add pipis and white wine and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pipis open and sauce is slightly thickened (3-5 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling saffron stock until a couple of minutes shy of al dente. Strain, reserving the stock.
4. Remove prawns and pipis from sauce and set aside. Add pasta to sauce with a spoonful of saffron stock and toss for 1 minute for pasta to absorb sauce. Return seafood to pan, mix a few times, then serve.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
Recipe by Nicola Dusi. Image by Eatable.
