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Try
not to be too grossed out by the name (or look!) of this dish as it
is the perfect Halloween dish to get you in the mood for trick or
treating or to quickly gobble down after! There is something about
black spaghetti that just screams Halloween and so I just can't
resist making it to mark the occasion. I love this dish as it takes
no time to make – literally just as long as it takes for the pasta
to cook – it tastes fantastic and has the perfect Halloween look to
keep the children happy! Of course when Halloween has past this is
still a fantastic meal which can be enjoyed minus the black spaghetti
and with whole wheat or regular white spaghetti instead. We eat this
dish a lot as it is the perfect quick and easy mid-week meal!
{Serves 4 easily doubled for a crowd}
400g
black (squid ink) spaghetti
3 tbsp
extra virgin olive oil
2-3
cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 long
red chilli, finely chopped (de-seed for a milder child friendly dish)
1lb
prawns, cleaned*
Juice
of ½ lemon
Sprinkling
of fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
Cook
the pasta in a large pan of salted, boiling water for the time
instructed on the packet. While the spaghetti is cooking heat 2 tbsp
of the oil in a frying pan and gently cook the garlic and chilli
until softened but not coloured. Add the prawns and toss well and
cook until warmed through (or if using raw prawns until they have
cooked properly). Squeeze over the lemon juice then take off the
heat.
Drain the spaghetti reserving a tablespoon of the cooking water then add the spaghetti to the garlicky prawns. Add the reserved pasta water then mix well. Finish with the final tablespoon of olive oil to give a real 'glossy' look to the pasta then if using scatter over the parsley. Serve at once.
*For
this particular dish I used small prawns since I thought they better
resembled bugs(!) however ordinarily when I make this I use normal
sized prawns. You can use either cooked or raw prawns for this dish,
just make sure they have their shells off and have been cleaned. If
you do use raw prawns they will require about 4 minutes to cook
whereas the cooked prawns literally just need to be heated through.
**If
you like you can miss out the prawns and have a super simple pasta
supper of Garlic & Chilli Spaghetti – one of my favourites!
