Creamy, rich and luxurious! This Saffron and Prawn linguine is quick and easy, making it perfect for busy nights but also special enough for entertaining.
So maybe this isn’t your your average weekday meal. The addition of prawns and saffron make this a bit of an extravagance. But occasionally it is nice to have a bit of a splurge, especially if you get some amazing prawns on half price!!!! The boys and I enjoyed this last weekend but as Stew is still renouncing carbs!!!! I only cooked half the amount below (although I might have used the same quantity of prawns 😉 )
The only down side to this (if you can call it that!) is you can’t really reheat it. The sauce goes claggy and prawns get overcooked. But hey that just means you are justified at having seconds 😉 Or I suppose if you are cooking for people with smaller appetites you could just half the recipe, like I did. I would say the quantities below will feed 4 adults.
It is such a simple dish to make, everything comes together in the time it takes pasta to cook. Which is perfect when you want a big plate of creamy pasta in a hurry. And just look at the beautiful colour of this dish, yellow pasta, spiked with red from the saffron and garnished with bright green chives. Dill also works wonderfully here! I quite often use dried chives, they have a great flavour and within a minute or so they have rehydrated to a bright green. No crumbly dried herbs in sight 🙂
The key to the rich sauce is the egg yolks. You beat them into the sauce once it has come off the heat, they thicken everything and make it super rich and delicious. Be sure to take the pan off the heat though, otherwise you end up with a saffron and scrambled egg sauce. Yick!!!!
Hope you love this.
x
p.s the other week I was watching the food channel and saw a chef reach for his jar of saffron, I kid you not it was a jar about the size of a mustard jar, filled with saffron!!! Wow! That is some stash! I just buy the little boxes from the supermarket, it is expensive but a little goes a long way. Just make sure you buy the threads and not the powder. The powder doesn’t give the same wonderful flavour and I have read that supplies often add turmeric and food colourings to the powder so they can reduce the amount of saffron. How unscrupulous!!
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Creamy Saffron and Shrimp Pasta
Ingredients
- 1.1 lb dried linguine
- large pinch saffron threads
- 4 tbsp boiling water
- 1 1/3 cups double cream
- 2 oz grated parmesan
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp chopped chives
- 11 oz peeled cooked shrimp
- 2 egg yolks
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Put a large pan of water onto boil ready for the pasta.
- Whilst it comes to the boil place the saffron into a small saucepan and pour over the 4 tbsp of boiling water. Leave to stand for 3-4 minutes.
- Salt the pasta water well, add the linguine and cook the pasta for a minute less than the instructions suggest.
- Add the cream, parmesan and the lemon zest to the saffron and stir over a medium heat until simmering. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the chives, prawns and cook for a further minute until heated through. Check the seasoning.
- Remove from the heat and stir through the egg yolks. (see notes)
- Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
- Pour the sauce over the pasta and thin with the cooking water as needed.
- Serve with a garnish of chopped chives.
Notes
Nutrition
Karen says
Just curious, wouldn’t it be better to use fresh, uncooked shrimp and saute it first? I’m thinking that the shrimp would be more tender (even on reheating) that way. I am going to make this tonight but I wondered if precooked shrimp would be too rubbery.
Claire McEwen says
Hi Karen, you could definitely use raw shrimp and sauté them off before adding them to the sauce. The cooked ones take a minute in the hot sauce to warm through, so they shouldn’t go rubbery, but using raw shrimp would definitely help prevent that. 😀