Baked Prawns with Feta
Introduction
Serves: Serves 6 or more
Ingredients
100ml olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 x 400g (14 oz) cans crushed Italian or Greek tomatoes
¼ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste, or ½ tsp chilli flakes
2 Tbsp coarsely chopped parsley
200g (7 oz) feta cheese
Method
1 Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). For the prawns if they are frozen, thaw them quickly in a sealed plastic bag in a sink of warm water. Twist off the heads and peel off most of the shell, leaving the tails intact. Split down the rounded back of each prawn with a sharp knife and remove any darkish veins. Rinse thoroughly, drain, then pat dry with paper towels.
2 Put oil in a large saucepan, add onion, cover pan with a lid and cook gently until tender. Remove lid, add garlic and cook for 5-10 minutes more, or until lightly golden. Add tomatoes, bring to a bubble, then lower heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, or chilli flakes, and parsley. The sauce may be prepared several hours ahead to this point; transfer to a bowl, cool, cover and refrigerate.
3 When ready to cook the prawns, reheat sauce and add prawns. Stir gently then transfer to an ovenproof dish or dishes. Crumble the feta over, keeping it in large flakes, (or slice it and lay on top of prawns). Bake for about 15 minutes, or until prawns are cooked through, and feta is lightly golden. Serve hot.
Recipe Notes
If you follow Shared Kitchen regularly you will know how I feel about prawns. There are no bargains to be had with prawns! Cheap prawns are cheap for a reason. Cheap prawns are often raised in a perpetually recycled tank of chemical ‘soup’ to produce the biggest, fleshiest prawns in as short a time as possible. Australia produces superb prawns, and that’s what I recommend using in this part of the world. To help you make up your mind, please read about prawns here Prawns and updated notes here Prawns Look for Australian frozen ‘wild caught’ king or banana prawns, (if the prawns are unlabelled they are most likely farmed prawns from Asia).
I cooked the prawns in the photo in scrubbed scallop shells. Set the scallop shells in an oven tray (roasting tin) to make it easy to move them in and out of the oven.