Tonnarelli pasta with prawn and ‘nduja
Prep time 30 minutes (plus making pasta dough, drying bread)
Cook 10 minutes
Serves 4
“We always have a surf-and-turf style pasta on the menu at Ragazzi, whether it be sausage and pipis, cuttlefish and pancetta, or prawn and ‘nduja,” says McComas-Williams. “It is no doubt a tribute to my Catalan training, but also, it’s bloody delicious. This sauce is crazy tasty considering how quick and easy it is. A beautiful, fresh, handmade pasta shouldn’t need too much. ‘Nduja has been a super popular ingredient over the past few years and there are some great local producers making it at the moment. Make sure you have a little taste of it before cooking as the heat can vary between producers.”
1 qty egg dough (pg24)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp ‘nduja, or to taste
125ml white wine
250ml (1 cup) fish stock, or crustacean stock
(see note)
350g prawns, peeled, deveined and chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
½ bunch flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
A splash of sweet vinegar, such as Catalan cava vinegar, chardonnay or champagne vinegar, and extra-virgin olive oil
to finish
PANGRATTATO
½ day-old crustless sourdough loaf, torn into small pieces and dried
at room temperature
for 3 hours
60ml (¼ cup)(olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 rosemary sprig
Pinch chilli flakes
1. For pangrattato, preheat oven to 150°C. Stir breadcrumbs with remaining ingredients in a frying pan over low heat until golden brown, then place in the oven until crunchy. Remove and cool, then crush into finer pieces.
2. Divide dough into four pieces and starting with the widest setting on your pasta machine, roll and laminate the dough, folding it onto itself like a book through the machine a few times to give the dough strength, then roll and reduce the settings one by one until dough is 3mm thick. Cut into about 20cm long sheets. Lightly dust with flour or semolina and then pass each sheet through the thinnest cutter on your machine (see note). Dust again and leave on a tray covered by a tea towel until you’re ready to cook.
3. In a large pan, add a good splash of olive oil and set on medium heat. Whack the ‘nduja in and start frying it off. Allow it to catch on the pan a little here and there, about 2 minutes, deglaze with the wine, add the stock and bring to the boil.
4. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling until al dente (2½ minutes). Have a little try of one of the noodles to make sure it’s cooked to your liking, just bear in mind that it will keep cooking a touch in the sauce itself.
5. Add pasta to the sauce along with a splash of the cooking water and toss together over medium-high heat. When it comes up to boil again, and a sauce forms, add the prawns and stir to combine (the residual heat of the sauce will cook the prawns). Give it a good season with sea salt. Remove from the heat and stir the butter through. Add the parsley, a splash of vinegar, stir and season to taste. Serve with a good sprinkle of pangrattato and a splash of extra-virgin olive oil.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
2019 Girolamo Russo ‘Etna Rosato’ Nerello Mascalese, Mt Etna
“Dry, powerful, pale rosé is the order of the day here,” says Matt Swieboda. “We need something refreshing to deal with the heat of the ‘nduja but with enough juiciness to work with the sweet prawn. If you were in France, a Provençal or Bandol rosé would work perfectly, but we’re in Italy, so we’ve gone for a Sicillian rosato from Mt Etna. It drinks like a full-bodied white wine but with a faint cherry flavour and a little smoke so typical of its volcanic soils.”
NOTE
To make a crustacean stock, you can use the prawn shells: lightly roast the shells, cover with water, add in a chopped onion, carrot, celery stick and a couple of fresh tomatoes - or whatever veg or veg trim you have kicking around the crisper - and simmer for 20 minutes before straining. Traditionally, tonarelli are made with a string utensil, we’ve given a method for a pasta machine here.
