This is one for the next dinner party - prawn mousseline-stuffed pasta in a rich prawn bisque.

Recipes Rosa Matto | Styling Natalie Homan | Photographs Brendan Homan

Gulf St Vincent prawn mousseline in pasta tubes, served with prawn bisque sauce
serves 6

for pasta
Approximately 300g pasta tubes, called mezze maniche
Prawn or lobster oil

for mousseline
250g raw prawns, shell on
1 egg white
salt
freshly ground white pepper
6 stems thyme, leaves only
300ml cream

Peel prawns and keep the shells, de-vein carefully. Place prawn meat in a blender with egg white.  Add salt and white pepper and blend until smooth. Blend in cream and thyme leaves by hand. Set aside in fridge while you prepare bisque.

for prawn bisque sauce
shells and heads of prawns
30g butter
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1L fresh fish stock
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 fresh bay leaf
2 fresh flat leaf parsley sprigs, plus extra to serve
6 stems thyme
1 tbsp tomato paste
100g short grain rice
3 small ripe tomatoes, chopped
3 tbsp brandy, plus an extra dash
squeeze lemon juice
50ml double cream

Melt 40g of the butter with 1 tbsp of the oil in a saucepan. Add prawn heads and shells and cook over a medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the mixture smells fragrant and the shells are orange.  Add shallots, carrots, celery, garlic, bay and herbs. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add fish stock and bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Add rice, tomatoes, brandy, then cook for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Allow to cool slightly.

Remove bay leaf and prawn shells and heads from pan, then ladle soup into a blender in batches and blend until very smooth. Strain soup, in batches, through a fine sieve into a medium bowl, pushing it through with a ladle.

Clean the sieve, then line it with muslin. Pass soup through the muslin into a saucepan, add lemon juice, cream and a dash more brandy then taste and season. Heat to a gentle simmer. When soup is hot and ready to serve, finely chop and add a little extra thyme.

Meanwhile, cook short tubes of pasta, called mezze maniche, for half the time it says on the packet. (I allow 5 tubes per person, but cook extra in case of breakage).

Drain and refresh thoroughly. Toss in a little melted butter if not using immediately.

Using a teaspoon, fill pasta tubes with prawn mousseline and put into a deep baking dish lined with baking paper. Pour in 1 cup of water and cover with aluminium foil. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 15 minutes.

Heat up sauce and spread on a plate, put out the 5 tubes of mousseline and finish off with freshly ground white pepper and a drizzle of prawn or lobster oil.

To serve, garnish with thyme flowers and leaves.

 

This recipe first appeared in the December 2023 issue of SALIFE magazine.