Spaghetti con Gamberino (Spaghetti with shrimps)

This is my favourite pasta dish and I love to make it because no one else can make it the way I like it! We first had REAL pasta in Rome. Of course Rome, where else! After our trip there in 2005 we really appreciated good pasta and learnt to cook them the proper way ourselves.

When I’m cooking this in Kuwait, it actually reminds me of Malaysian-style spicy noodles that I eat it with a pair of chopsticks. LOL

INGREDIENTS

For one serving

80 gms spaghetti

3 cloves garlic

5 guindilla (Spanish dried chilli)

70 gms peeled, deveined shrimps

3 leaves fresh basil

15 gms fresh parseley

1 tsp tomato puree

2 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the spaghetti and boil according to instructions on the packet until al dente. Check when it has been boiling for 6 minutes by biting a piece of the spaghetti. If not al dente enough, let it boil for another minute or two until the right firmness is reached.

Peel the garlic, smash it with the blade of a knife the cut into 1/2 cm widths, Mince the parseley and shred the basil.

In a pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic and saute it – don’t let it become crispy. Lower the heat. Crush the guindilla between your thumb and index finger and add to the garlic. Fry a little on this low heat then add in the spaghetti. Fry the spaghetti mixing it well with the garlic and the guindilla to let it absorb the flavours and get coated in the olive oil. Add salt to taste and the herbs.

Add the tomato puree and stir well for 2 minutes or so.

Increase the heat, make a well in the centre of the pan – i.e. move the pasta to the sides of the pan – and add the shrimps. It should only take a while to cook on the high heat. Stir well and move the pasta around to spread out the shrimps.