Alberto's Kitchen

Difficulty •••

Calories per portion 460

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 pint of Coulis (for use with pasta, use a little flour in it)

1 tablespoon of Aromatic Oil

400 g (14oz.) Linguine (spaghetti is fine also)

400 g (14 oz.) whole Crustaceous (with head and shell)

4 round Tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Chili pepper or ground Pepper (optional)

Description

This recipe can be prepared with shrimps or prawns as well as with a mix of various crustaceous. Similar to shrimp risotto, it is a very delicate dish, but full of flavor and taste. Here we use few round tomatoes that do not have to be ripe, but still orange looking and with a compact body. The crustaceous must be either fresh or frozen raw. They would be worthless for this recipe if even slightly pre-cooked. It requires a little work and some accuracy with ingredient handling and cooking temperature, but the final result will be extremely rewarding. In my opinion, this is the best recipe for a special romantic evening accompanied by a chilled northern Italian white wine such as Gewurtz Traminer or Muller Turgau.

Directions

If the crustaceous are frozen, put them in cold water to rest for about 30 minutes. Clean them and put the body into a bowl and heads and shells (not necessarily all of them) into a pot and prepare the Coulis. Cut all the crustaceous in pieces half an inch long except for few that we will use as final décor (save 2 per portion). The preparation of tomatoes is time consuming because we cannot put them in boiling water to take their skin off, we’ll have to peel them by hand. We are not after a red sauce but just a tiny bit of color and zest from these tomatoes.  Thus, we will cut the peeled tomatoes, cut them into chunks and put them in a small sauce pan with a lid on at a very low temperature. Actually they will have to cook very slowly into their own liquid with nothing else added. It will take about 30 to 40 minutes for them to become a soft compound and once in a while we will add a tablespoon of water if needed so they won’t stick or dry too much. When ready we will turn off the heat and add a sprig of fresh basil inside. Meanwhile we will put the linguine in salted boiling water. We will drain it at a couple of minutes past the half cooking time (in cuisine is called whitening the pasta). Save a ½ a cup of Coulis and drop the linguine in the rest of the crustaceous broth. The pasta has to finish cooking in the coulis so; in the meantime, we will put some Aromatic Oil in a pan and will lower the temperature adding few tablespoon of the saved crustaceous fumet (coulis). Drop in the crustaceous chunks and let them flavor in it. Now take a skillet and heat it up at high temperature. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil and sauté the saved whole shrimps we saved before till pink and roasted. Now we can assemble the dish: mix the shrimp chunks with linguine and add the tomato reduction (it may be sufficient a couple of tablespoon till pasta gets a pink color). Break few leaves of fresh basil in it and serve. On top of each portion place 2 roasted shrimps and a little bit of ground pepper.