Spicy Miso Prawn Spaghetti

This is my idea of comfort food, easy, quick and full of umami flavour. The vegetarians in my life love this dish with beautiful mushrooms in place of the prawns. I love to use a combination of shiitake, enoki and oyster mushrooms for this. For the spice averse people in my life, I use a sprinkle of chilli flakes instead of the whole chilli padi. For the chilli fiends, I leave the seeds in the chilli padi as those pack even more heat.

I make this all the time, it brings me so much joy to see the pasta water emulsify and get that glossy finish. Absolutely perfect paired with a glass of white wine.

Ingredients:

150g dry spaghetti

3 tbsp salted butter

150g prawns (peeled and deveined)

4 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 birds eye chilli (chilli padi), deseeded and sliced thinly

2 tsp light soya sauce

1 tsp white miso paste

1 tbsp oyster sauce

Garnish:

A handful of spring onions, sliced finely (optional)

Method:

Add the spaghetti to salted boiling water.

In a fresh pan, add the butter.

Add the garlic and chilli and fry gently for 3 minutes. You just want to infuse the garlic and chilli into the butter, do not brown the garlic.

Add the soya sauce, miso paste and oyster sauce and continue to cook together for another minute, gently infusing all the flavours together.

Add the prawns to the pan.

When the spaghetti is almost al dente, add it to the pan, add a splash of the pasta water to the pan too.

Continue to cook for about 3 to 5 minutes until the sauce thickens up and clings nicely to the spaghetti, making sure the strands are silky and glossy.

Plate up and sprinkle with the spring onions. 

Serve immediately.