Sicilian Spaghetti with Red Prawns and Datterino Tomatoes | Spaghetti con Gamberi Rossi di Mazara e Datterini
Updated: 2 days ago
Mazara del Vallo sends the largest fishing fleet in Italy into the Strait of Sicily, and the one thing it is known for above everything else is a prawn. The gambero rosso comes up from between 400 and 700 metres of cold water, deep enough that the flesh is dense and sugary and the shell is scarlet before it ever meets heat. On the quay it is sold whole, heads attached, and the first rule of cooking it is that you cook it as little as you possibly can.
This plate of spaghetti is built around that rule. The shells and heads make a fast broth, the datterino tomatoes are burst rather than reduced, and the prawns are split in two: one half meets the pan for forty seconds, the other half never sees heat at all and is folded in once the pan is off the flame, warming only from the pasta around it.
What reaches the table tastes of two different prawns at once, one roasted and one raw and sweet, held together by a sauce of tomato water, prawn broth and olive oil brought into an emulsion by the starch of the pasta. There is no cream, no butter and no cheese in it, and not one of the three would improve it.
Yield: 4 servings. Prep: 25 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes. Total: about 50 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Sicily, Mazara del Vallo and the Trapani coast.
The Story
Mazara del Vallo sits on the western tip of Sicily, closer to Tunis than to Palermo, and it has the Arab street plan to prove it. The old quarter is still called the Casbah, half the trawler crews speak Arabic on deck, and the port works around a single resource: the Mazara bank, the deep trench offshore where two species of red prawn live. Aristaeomorpha foliacea is the one the town sells under its own name, and Aristeus antennatus, the blue and red prawn, comes up alongside it.
For most of the twentieth century those prawns were the least valuable thing the boats landed. They did not travel, and they were sold cheap on the quay before the ice ran out. Only in the 1980s, when air freight and proper onboard chilling arrived together, did the gambero rosso di Mazara become a luxury flown to Tokyo and quoted by the kilo in Milan. Inside Mazara little changed. The prawns are still eaten raw with oil and salt, or dropped onto spaghetti with a handful of tomatoes.
The tomatoes matter as much as the prawn. Datterini, small and elongated and grown in the sandy ground of the south western coast, hold their sugar and their skin in a way larger tomatoes do not, which is why they are burst whole rather than cooked down. The chilli is Sicilian and dried, used for warmth rather than heat, and the herb is flat leaf parsley, never basil. Cheese is not an option here: on this coast it is understood to flatten shellfish.
Ingredients
For the prawns and the broth
Whole red prawns, gamberi rossi, heads and shells on, 1 1/4 lb (570 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Garlic clove, crushed, 1
Parsley stems, 3
Cold water, 2 cups (480 ml)
For the pasta and the sauce
Bronze die spaghetti, 12 oz (340 g)
Datterino tomatoes, halved lengthwise, 10 oz (285 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsp (60 ml)
Garlic cloves, thinly sliced, 2
Dried Sicilian chilli, crumbled, 1 small
Dry white wine, 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Coarse sea salt for the pasta water, 3 tbsp (45 g)
Fine sea salt, to taste
For finishing
Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped, 2 tbsp (6 g)
Lemon zest, finely grated, from 1/2 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp (10 ml)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Peel the prawns and keep every shell
Twist the heads from the bodies and set them in a small bowl with any juice that runs out, because that juice is the most concentrated thing in the dish. Peel the tails, leaving the last segment attached on four of them, and lift out the dark vein with the tip of a knife. Divide the peeled tails into two equal piles. Cover one pile and refrigerate it: those are the raw prawns and they stay cold until the last thirty seconds.
Build the quick prawn broth
Warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the heads and shells with the crushed garlic, and press down on the heads with a wooden spoon until they give up their orange liquid, about 3 minutes. Pour in the cold water, add the parsley stems and bring it to a bare simmer. Cook for 15 minutes and no longer, then strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing hard. You should have about 1 cup (240 ml) of pale coral broth.
Salt the water and set the timing
Bring 4 quarts (3.8 litres) of water to a rolling boil and add the coarse salt. It should taste clearly of the sea and no more, because the broth and the tomatoes carry salt of their own and the sauce concentrates in the pan. Read the time on the spaghetti packet and subtract 2 minutes: that is when the pasta leaves the water. Drop the spaghetti, stir it once so it does not weld, and start the sauce immediately.
Burst the datterino tomatoes
Put 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wide sauté pan over medium heat with the sliced garlic and the crumbled chilli and let them turn pale gold without colouring further, about 90 seconds. Lay the halved datterini in cut side down and leave them alone for 2 minutes, then raise the heat, pour in the white wine and let it evaporate. Press roughly a third of the tomatoes with the back of a spoon and leave the rest whole. Add half the prawn broth and let it bubble.
Sear half the prawns
Take the prawns you left at room temperature, dry them on paper and season them lightly. Push the tomatoes to one side of the pan, raise the heat to high and lay the prawns into the clear space. Give them 20 seconds on one side and 20 on the other, no more: they should be marked outside and barely opaque in the middle. Lift them straight out onto a plate, because left in the pan they turn to rubber.
Drain the spaghetti early and finish it in the pan
Lift the spaghetti out with tongs 2 minutes before the packet time, letting it carry some water with it, and drop it straight into the tomatoes. Add a ladle of the remaining prawn broth and a ladle of pasta water, then keep the pan moving over medium high heat for the last 2 minutes. The pasta finishes cooking in the sauce rather than in the pot and drinks the broth while it does. Add pasta water whenever the pan looks dry.
Mantecare off the heat and fold in the raw prawns
When the spaghetti is properly al dente, pull the pan off the flame completely. Add the last tablespoon of olive oil and toss hard for 30 seconds, swinging the pan rather than stirring, until the liquid turns glossy and clings to the strands instead of pooling underneath. Now fold in the cold raw prawns with the seared ones, the parsley and the reserved head juice. Ten seconds is enough, and the raw prawns should still be translucent at the centre.
Plating
Warm four plates, wide and shallow rather than deep bowls, but warm them gently. A plate straight out of a hot cupboard carries on cooking the raw prawns and undoes the point of the dish, so hand hot is right. Use a carving fork and a ladle to twist each portion into a tall nest, lifting it from the pan and setting it down in one movement so the strands keep their spiral.
Arrange the prawns around and over the nest, alternating a seared one with a raw one so both are visible. Spoon the tomatoes and the sauce left in the pan around the base rather than over the top, where they would slide off. Finish with the grated lemon zest, a turn of black pepper and the two teaspoons of raw olive oil divided between the plates. Serve it the moment it is built, and put no cheese on the table.
Professional Technique
The technique that defines this recipe is the division of one ingredient into two states. Crustacean proteins begin to set at around 122°F (50°C), and the free amino acids that make a deep water red prawn taste sweet are at their highest in the raw flesh, which is why a gambero rosso cooked through tastes markedly less of itself. Searing half the prawns buys the roasted crust flavour that raw flesh cannot give, and keeping the other half raw preserves the sweetness heat destroys.
The second technique is the twenty minute shell broth. Most of the colour and flavour in prawn shells sits in astaxanthin, a carotenoid bound to protein and soluble in fat rather than water, which is why the shells are pressed in hot oil before any liquid goes near them. The fifteen minute simmer that follows is a hard limit. Beyond it the shells release the iodine and bitter chitin notes that make shellfish stock taste metallic, and no reduction will take them out again.
Texture and Moisture Control
Everything hangs on starch. Spaghetti lifted 2 minutes early is still firm in the core and still shedding starch from its surface, and that starch is the only emulsifier in a sauce made of tomato water, prawn broth and oil. Finishing the pasta in the pan lets it absorb the broth as it softens, seasoning the strand from the inside instead of coating it. Keep a cup of pasta water within reach and add it in small amounts: the pan should always look slightly wet, never dry and never swimming.
The final toss off the heat is where the sauce comes together or breaks. Off the flame the temperature drops just enough for the starch to hold the oil in suspension, and swinging the pan is what drives the emulsion. Done over a live flame the liquid boils away and the oil separates into a greasy film. The other moisture to watch is the tomatoes: press a third and no more, since crushing all of them turns a glossy pasta into a watery one with nothing left to bite.
Professional Mise en Place
The last four minutes leave no room to look for anything, so the broth, the tomatoes and both piles of prawns are ready before the pasta goes into the water.
Equipment and tools
Wide sauté pan, large enough to hold all the spaghetti and toss it
Small saucepan and a fine mesh sieve for the shell broth
Tongs and a carving fork for lifting and twisting the pasta
Large pot, 6 quarts (5.7 litres) or more, for the pasta water
Microplane for the lemon zest, grated only at the moment of service
Prepared ahead
Prawn broth, made 1 day ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for 1 month
Prawns peeled and split into two piles, the raw pile kept cold on ice
Head juice reserved in a small bowl, covered and refrigerated
Datterini halved, garlic sliced and chilli crumbled into one tray
Parsley chopped at the last moment so it stays green
Service setup
Pasta water at a rolling boil and salted before the sauce starts
Prawn broth warm beside the stove with a ladle standing in it
Plates warming gently, hand hot only, never hot from the oven
Raw prawns in the refrigerator until the pan is off the heat
Olive oil, lemon and pepper mill lined up for the finish
Chef Tips
Buy the prawns whole and refuse peeled ones. Half the flavour of this dish comes out of the heads and shells, and a peeled prawn has lost the broth, the head juice and any way of judging freshness. A good gambero rosso has a firm head that stays attached and a clean smell of sea water.
If the prawns carry roe under the head, scrape it out and stir it into the head juice. It is intensely flavoured, it dissolves into the sauce during the final toss, and it deepens the colour more than any amount of tomato. Discard it only if it smells of ammonia.
Taste the broth before it goes into the pan and thin it with hot water if it tastes sharp or metallic. A broth that is too strong will fight the raw prawns rather than support them, and it is far easier to correct in the saucepan than once it is on the pasta.
If Sicilian red prawns are unavailable, use the best raw shellfish you can find locally rather than a frozen substitute sold under the same name. Carabineros, spot prawns and true langoustine all behave the same way here. A cooked or previously frozen prawn cannot be served raw at all.
Common Mistakes
Cooking all the prawns. Once every prawn has been through the pan the dish loses the sweetness that makes a deep water red prawn worth buying, and it becomes an ordinary seafood pasta. Keep half of them raw and cold until the pan is off the flame.
Simmering the shell broth too long. Past 15 minutes the shells release bitter chitin and iodine notes that no reduction removes. Strain it on time even if it looks pale, since the colour deepens in the pan with the tomatoes.
Crushing all the tomatoes. Datterini are here for their liquid and their skin, and pressing all of them leaves a thin uniform sauce with nothing to bite against. Burst about a third and leave the rest whole.
Finishing the pasta in the pot. Spaghetti cooked to full time in water and then dressed in the pan arrives soft and takes on none of the broth. Lift it out 2 minutes early and let the last 2 minutes happen in the sauce.
Tossing the final emulsion over heat. On a live flame the liquid boils off and the oil separates into a greasy layer. Take the pan off the heat before the last oil goes in, then toss hard for 30 seconds so the starch can hold the emulsion.
Wine Pairing
Grillo Sicilia DOC: The local bottle and the obvious one. Grown across western Sicily within reach of Mazara, it brings ripe citrus, a herbal edge and enough acidity to cut the olive oil without stripping sweetness from the raw prawns. Its saline finish runs parallel to the shell broth.
Etna Bianco DOC: Carricante grown on volcanic soil gives a tenser wine than Grillo, with high acidity and a flinty mineral core. That tension is what a plate of both cooked and raw shellfish needs, and it stays steady against the chilli where a softer white would turn flabby.
Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: From granite soils in northern Sardinia, with more body than the Sicilian whites and a bitter almond note on the finish. It handles the tomato without losing definition and sits comfortably under the emulsified sauce, where a lighter wine would disappear.
Greco di Tufo DOCG: A Campanian white with real structure, stone fruit and a smoky note from the volcanic ground around Tufo. Choose it when the prawns are large and rich, since it meets the sweetness of the raw flesh head on instead of being flattened by it.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: The red option, from south eastern Sicily. Nero d'Avola gives it fruit and Frappato gives it perfume and low tannin, so it meets tomato and chilli without the astringency that ruins shellfish. Serve it cool, at about 57°F (14°C).
Storage & Reheating
This is a dish to eat immediately and not one to store. Dressed spaghetti left standing absorbs the sauce within minutes and arrives dry and swollen, and the raw prawns will not survive being held. If you do have leftovers, refrigerate them in a sealed container for no more than 24 hours.
To reheat, never use a microwave, which cooks the prawns through and turns them tough. Put the pasta in a wide pan with 2 tablespoons of water or leftover broth, cover it and warm it over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing once, then take the pan off and let the residual heat finish. Pick the prawns out first and return them at the end.
The shell broth stores well on its own and is the part worth making ahead. It keeps refrigerated in a sealed jar for 2 days and frozen for 1 month, and it is useful in risotto or a seafood soup. Raw prawns should be used the day you buy them and never refrozen once thawed.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings:
Calories: 615 kcal
Total Fat: 22 g
Saturated Fat: 3.2 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 17.5 g
Cholesterol: 165 mg
Sodium: 760 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 69 g
Fiber: 4 g
Total Sugars: 6 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 32 g
Lactose: 0 g
Principal micronutrients: iodine, selenium, zinc, copper, vitamin B12, astaxanthin, lycopene, vitamin C
These figures are estimates. Most of the salt in the pasta water is poured away rather than eaten, so the real sodium depends on how much pasta water ends up in the sauce.
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