I needed:
4 plum tomatoes
12 tiger or king prawns
3½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¹⁄3 cup kalamata olives, pitted
4 teaspoons arak or Pernod
3 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
Coarse sea salt
Instructions:
- Start by preparing the tomatoes. Make a tiny shallow cross with a sharp knife at the bottom of each one and put them in boiling water for 30 seconds.
- Remove, refresh under plenty of cold water, then drain. Now peel the skin away and cut each tomato into 4 to 6 wedges. Set aside.
- To prepare the prawns, peel the shells away from the bodies, keeping the tail segment of the shell on.
- Cut a shallow slit along the back of each prawn and use the tip of a small knife to remove the dark vein.
- Place a frying pan over high heat. When very hot, add 1½ tablespoons of the butter and sauté the prawns quickly for 2 minutes, shaking the pan as you go.
- Add the tomatoes, pepper flakes and olives and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the prawns are nearly cooked through.
- Add the arak carefully (it tends to catch fire).
- Let the alcohol evaporate for a minute before quickly adding the remaining 2 tablespoons butter along with the garlic, parsley and some salt. Toss for a second for everything to come together in a runny sauce, then serve immediately.
Note: Arak is a Middle Eastern liquor made from aniseed and distilled grapes.
Our Journey with the Recipe:
Everything was easy to source or substitute at short notice, except for the arak. We decided, given the other ingredients, and our previous history with other prawn and tomato dishes, that a splash of white wine would suffice for this time.
Curiously fresh parsley was not to be seen anywhere either. Perhaps the long, hot summer and drought conditions have affected the herb market this year? A pack of 'lightly dried' parsley had to make do. I also prefer fresh chilli to red pepper flakes.
The other problem turned out to be the prawns. All the green prawns were gone by the time I was heading home after work. I had to use cooked prawns instead.
Normally I would be reluctant to use so much butter in a tomato based sauce, but it was divine.
Because I was using cooked prawns, we tossed them into the pan right at the end of the cooking process instead at point 5.
Ottolenghi says that all their "recipes evolve and develop" over time but
there are certain threads – or combinations of ingredients – holding things together. Prawns, tomatoes and Arak are one of these combinations. New ingredients share the stage – chunks of feta, the addition of more fish, bringing in a new herb or a different vegetable – but the trilogy still holds tight. This – the simplest and quickest version – remains the classic, the template against which all others are measured. It needs to be eaten as soon as it’s made, served as a starter, with fresh crusty bread to mop up the juices.
Given this holy trinity of ingredients, next time I will wait until I can source some arak, although it tasted just fine the way it was!
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