Last weekend we farewelled to of our dearest friends so the occasion had to be marked by one of my favourite dishes to make: a prawn saganaki! It's fresh yet hearty. It's also deceitfully easy to make. I got a few requests for the recipe so I decided to pop it up here.
The base for the recipe is very simple but I've added a few little twists like substituting the white wine for red (for an extra hearty kick) and cutting the chilli potion in half and adding some chilli jam instead. If you are not as intimidated by spice as I am, double the chilli. This dish really allows you to have fun and be creative.
A saganaki is a wonderful dish to share with guests as it's so easy to make and can also be prepared a full day ahead. Just toss in the prawns and the fetta in and pop in the oven! People will think you spent the day in the kitchen.
The prep time is about 20 minutes - depending on how quickly you can chop!
Materials: large saucepan, chopping block, sharp knife, wooden spoon, oven-ready serving dish.
To serve 4 people, you'll need:
- Olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Half a cup of red wine.
- 2 brown onions
- 2 fennels
- 2 garlic cloves
- Optional: a squeeze of garlic paste (should you like things extra garlicky) and/or ginger paste
- 2 red long chillis (and/or a full tablespoon of chilli jam)
- a bunch of fresh parsley
- 2 tins of diced tomatoes (I find the Italian versions are the best for this recipe)
- A punnet of cherry tomatoes (cut in half) or 3 roma tomatoes (chopped into quarters)
- 1 big block of Greek-style fetta cheese (as crumbly as you can get it)
- 400gr of fresh prawns (peeled and deveined)
- Crusty bread to serve
How to make it:
- Prep the ingredients: Slice the onion and the fennel. Prep your tomatoes (chop or half them, depending on the size). Chop and crush the garlic. Chop the parsley. and the chilli. Crumble the fetta.
- Pre-heat the oven at 220 degrees.
- Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat, pour in 2 tsp of olive oil (garlic and ginger paste, if you choose to use them) and sauté the onion, fennel, garlic and chilli for 5 minutes or until the onion softens.
- Add all the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the wine and season with salt and pepper. Mix in the chilli jam.
- Leave it to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the liquid reduces and the sauce thickens.
- Transfer the sauce to your oven-ready serving dish. If you are making the dish ahead of time, wait until the sauce cools down, wrap the dish in cling wrap and store in the fridge. It will keep for up to 2 days.
- Push the prawns into the mixture and crumble all the fetta over them.
- Bake the dish in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the prawns are no longer translucent and have turned pinkish white. The fetta should be slightly golden over the mixture.
- While the dish is baking, cut up the crusty bread into thick slices and place in a baking tray. Pop the baking tray into the oven for the last 3-5 minutes to crisp up the slices even further.
- Take the dish and bread out of the oven and sprinkle the parsley over the fetta to serve.
Enjoy!
Love - xClaudia
