Serves: 4
Ingredients
Pangrattato
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
- ½ cup olive oil (about 8 tablespoons)
- 10 cloves of garlic
- Thyme sprigs
Pasta
- 250g spaghetti (roughly half a packet)
- 300g prawns, shelled but leave the tails intact (weight as per unshelled prawns)
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes (or use 1 tbsp for extra heat)
- 1 tin (50g) anchovies, drained
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 of a lemon
Method
Pangrattato
- To make the pangrattato, pulse day-old bread or baguette in a food processor to yield 2 cups of rough crumbs (these crumbs should be much bigger than those used to coat fritters – don’t worry if you get uneven-sized bits).
- Heat up the olive oil, thyme sprigs and garlic cloves over low heat until the garlic starts to brown. Watch out as the oil would sizzle and spit (If using dried thyme, add in slightly later as it may burn).
- Throw in the breadcrumbs, and toss quickly but be careful to not let the garlic blacken. Fry until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden brown.
- Remove from heat and place breadcrumbs on absorbent kitchen towels. Fish out the garlic cloves and save them for the rocket salad.
Pasta
- Boil pasta in a pot of salted water and cook until al dente.
- Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat up the olive oil with the minced garlic.
- Once the garlic starts to soften, add in the anchovies, chili flakes and pepper.
- When the anchovies starts breaking down, stir in the prawns. Once the prawns are cooked and pinkish, squeeze in the lemon juice.
- Drain the pasta – it should be done by now, and toss it together with the anchovy mixture in the pan.
- Top the pasta with a generous sprinkling of pangrattato and serve.