Gordon Ramsay’s prawn pasta is tiger prawns seared with garlic and red chilli, finished in a quick sauce of manzanilla sherry, tomato purée, cherry tomatoes and butter, then tossed through linguine. Ready in 15 minutes.
The prawn and sauce recipe comes from Quick and Delicious, where Ramsay serves it with crusty bread. He calls prawns “the perfect fast food because they take just a few minutes to cook,” and this chilli prawn linguine version uses the exact same technique over pasta instead. The manzanilla sherry is his twist: drier and nuttier than white wine, which gives the sauce a depth you would not get from Pinot Grigio.
Ramsay removes the prawns from the pan after searing, then reduces the sauce without them. This is the step most people skip, and it is the reason most prawn pasta turns out with rubbery seafood sitting in watery liquid. Two minutes out of the pan is all the sauce needs to thicken, then the prawns go back in just to warm through.
Gordon Ramsay Prawn Pasta
Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy2
servings5
minutes10
minutes480
kcal15
minutesGarlic and chilli prawns tossed through linguine, adapted from the Garlic and Chilli Prawns in Quick and Delicious. Ramsay’s original is served with bread, but the quick sherry and tomato sauce coats pasta just as well. Source: Adapted from Garlic and Chilli Prawns in Quick and Delicious (Hodder & Stoughton, 2019).
Ingredients
200g (7 oz) dried linguine
4 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
600g (1 lb 5 oz) raw tiger prawns, peeled and deveined
80ml manzanilla sherry
1 tsp tomato purée
200g (7 oz) cherry tomatoes, quartered
25g (1 oz) cold butter, cut into small cubes
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Cook the pasta: Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil. Add the linguine and cook according to packet instructions until al dente. Reserve a mug of pasta water before draining.
- Sear the prawns: Place a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When hot, add the garlic, chilli and chilli flakes. Stir gently for 1 minute. Add the prawns and cook until pink on one side.
- Build the sauce: Turn each prawn over and add the sherry, tomato purée and cherry tomatoes. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the prawns are pink all over, then transfer the prawns to a plate. Continue to cook the sauce for 2-3 minutes until the tomatoes have softened and the liquid has reduced slightly.
- Finish and serve: Return the prawns to the pan. Stir in the cold butter and parsley, season to taste. Add the drained linguine and a splash of pasta water, then toss everything together until the pasta is coated. Serve immediately.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay use manzanilla sherry instead of white wine?
Manzanilla is a dry fino sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a salty, almost briny edge that pairs naturally with seafood. White wine works fine, but it tastes thinner in comparison. The sherry gives the sauce a nutty depth in just 80ml that you would need twice the amount of wine to match. You can find it in most supermarkets next to the cooking wines for about £5.
Why remove the prawns before reducing the sauce?
Prawns go from perfectly cooked to rubbery in under a minute. By taking them out after the initial sear, the sauce can bubble and reduce without the prawns overcooking. They go back in right at the end just to warm through. Ramsay does the same with his shrimp alfredo where king prawns are seared fast then tossed into a brown butter and Parmesan fettuccine at the last moment. That sear-remove-return pattern shows up in almost every Ramsay prawn recipe, from this linguine to the scampi to the shrimp alfredo.
Can you use spaghetti or other pasta shapes?
Linguine is the best match because the flat strands catch the light sauce. Spaghetti works well too. For a faster-cooking option, Ramsay uses capellini in his shrimp scampi from Ramsay in 10, which cooks in 3 minutes instead of 10. Avoid thick shapes like penne or rigatoni because the sauce is too light to fill the tubes.
How do you make it creamy?
Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of double cream at the same time as the butter in step 4. The cream catches all the chilli and garlic flavour already in the pan and turns the sauce silky. Ramsay does not add cream to his version, so this is a personal preference rather than his method, but it works.
Does prawn pasta store well?
Honestly, no. The prawns go chewy when reheated and the pasta absorbs the sauce overnight. This is a cook-and-eat-now dish. If you have leftover prawns, toss them cold the next day through a prawn cocktail salad with the spicy yoghurt and fish sauce dressing from Ultimate Home Cooking rather than microwaving them.
What goes alongside prawn linguine?
It is a full meal on its own for two, which is how Ramsay wrote it. If you want something on the table next to it, his Caesar salad with the anchovy and egg yolk dressing and Parmesan croutons cuts right through the butter and chilli. Crusty bread for mopping up whatever sauce is left in the bowl.
