Lemon and prawn pasta

Supper tonight was a lemony pasta dish I have made many times before. It is quick to make, but the key is to prepare all of your ingredients while the pasta is cooking, because everything goes in right at the end.

While the (wholewheat) fusilli cooked, I grated a bit of Parmesan and the zest of one (unwaxed) lemon. I also washed and chopped lots of flat leaf parsley. (My boyfriend’s mother taught me a trick to chop herbs much more easily and quickly: Just pick the leaves off the stems, throw them in a small glass, and snip with kitchen scissors until they’re in bits.) Finally, I separated two egg yolks from their whites, which went in the fridge for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Once the pasta was cooked, I drained it and put it back in the pan, adding the egg yolks, grated cheese and lemon zest, all of the juice from the lemon, plus 500g of cooked small prawns, fleur de sel and pepper, and a few dessertspoons of Total 0% Greek Yoghurt (if I wasn’t being balanced about things, I’d use double cream instead). After giving everything a good stir over low heat, I added half the chopped parsley, plated the pasta, and scattered the rest of the bright green leaves over the finished dish.

This was the first time I’ve added prawns to this dish, and it worked very well. It’s the kind of thing you can make out of ingredients you’re likely to have around the house anyway, so is a good standby supper, while still being special enough to serve to guests. We had salad and fresh strawberries to finish off the meal.