I love making pasta, and recently I've been trying to perfect my basic fettuccine, linguine and spaghetti, rather than immediately diving into more complex filled pasta varieties. Like bread making, the sense of satisfaction when eating your own homemade pasta is truly fantastic. If you're a pasta-making amateur, it does take a little bit of time to make, so serving it with a quick and easy sauce is a must. I'd recommend this tomatoey, peppery, chilli prawn sauce.
Of course, you could have this sauce with store-bought pasta as well - but where is the fun in that? I enjoy making pasta with all-purpose flour, as I find it somewhat annoying to have to keep a number of other flours in my cupboard specifically for pasta or bread making. All-purpose is what I use most often when cooking and baking. I'm always guaranteed to have it in my kitchen, similarly with eggs, olive oil and salt. This particular recipe for pasta hasn't failed me yet. I based it off this one from Chef Anne Burrell of the Food Network.
Tomato or cream based pasta sauces really just depend on my mood. Homemade pasta tastes best with a simple sauce. Some of my personal favourites include burnt butter and sage or pesto. Simple and delicious, and allows you to enjoy the taste and texture of your pasta efforts. This chilli prawn sauce has a tomato base and can be made in 15 minutes or less. For something a little more fancy - add a half cup of cream to your sauce for a little creamy tomato number.
PrintHomemade Pasta with Chilli Prawn Sauce
A simple homemade pasta recipe teamed with a spicy tomato sauce and prawns.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Savoury
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil (plus extra to serve)
- 250g raw prawns (de-shelled and cleaned)
- 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small brown onion, diced
- 400g tin diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- Fresh parsley, to serve
Instructions
Pasta
- Place flour in a bowl, or directly on to work surface and make a small well in the centre.
- Crack eggs into the well, add oil and salt. Using a fork, begin to whisk eggs, gradually adding in small amounts of flour.
- After incorporating the flour slowly, dough should appear quite crumbly and rough. Using your hands, begin to knead the dough. Kneading will take 8-15 minutes. Dough should be silky smooth upon finishing.
- Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and place into the fridge for 30 minutes.
- To make the fettuccine, divide your dough into four even balls and flatten into a disc. Run the dough through your pasta machine, making sure dough is well floured throughout this process. I typically roll out to thickness number six.
- Run again through the fettuccine side to cut your pasta, or simply use a knife to cut into long skinny strips. Hang on a pasta wrack while you repeat this process with the rest of your dough.
Sauce
- Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Cook prawns until white in colour and opaque. Remove from the heat.
- Add remaining one tablespoon of olive oil and reduce heat to medium.
- Saute onion, garlic and chilli flakes until onion appears soft and translucent. Pour in tinned tomatoes and season with sugar, salt and black pepper. Allow sauce to simmer for 5-10 minutes before adding prawns back in.
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook your pasta until al dente. As this is fresh pasta, cooking should only take 30 seconds to three minutes, depending on how dried out your pasta is.
- Once cooked, drain from water, reserving one third of a cup. Transfer pasta to the sauce and add in the starchy water. Stir to combine.
- Serve fresh and piping hot, sprinkled with freshly chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.
Jordan says
Delicious!
★★★★★