Le Zucchine

Method:

King prawns with a Sardinian spirit

This is a very simple recipe, but it has a wonderful dramatic effect: a few good ingredients, a quick bake in the oven, the perfume of the sea, and finally the flame of fil'e ferru, the traditional Sardinian grape spirit.

Fil'e ferru literally means "iron wire". According to Sardinian tradition, when home distilling was forbidden or had to be hidden from the authorities, farmers and shepherds would bury bottles or distilling equipment in the fields. To find them again, they left only a small piece of iron wire sticking out of the ground. From this clever trick came the name of the Sardinian spirit, which today is part of the island's food culture and rural memory.

Prepare the prawns

Clean the king prawns, removing the intestinal vein. Rinse them quickly under cold water and dry them well with kitchen paper. This is important: the prawns should be clean, but not full of water, otherwise they will steam instead of roasting gently.

Take an earthenware baking dish and add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Arrange the prawns in a single layer, without piling them on top of each other.

Season and bake

Add the lightly crushed garlic cloves and the bay leaf. The garlic will perfume the oil without covering the sweet flavour of the prawns, while the bay leaf gives a warm, old-fashioned Mediterranean aroma.

Season with a pinch of salt and some crushed chilli. Do not overdo the salt, because the prawns already have their own natural savouriness. The chilli should be present, but gentle: it should warm the dish, not dominate it.

Bake at 180°C for about 10 minutes. The cooking should be short. As soon as the prawns turn pink, glossy and fragrant, they are ready. It is better to take them out one minute early than one minute late, because overcooked prawns quickly lose their softness.

Flambé with fil'e ferru

Remove the dish from the oven and place it on a safe, heatproof surface. Pour over a generous amount of fil'e ferru. If you cannot find it, brandy also works, but fil'e ferru gives the dish a more Sardinian, dry and authentic character.

Very carefully, bring a flame close to the dish and flambé. The spirit will catch fire for a few moments, burning off the alcohol and leaving a warm, intense aroma around the prawns.

Serve

Bring the dish to the table immediately, ideally while it is still flaming. This is a recipe that needs very little decoration: good bread to mop up the juices, a cold glass of Vermentino, and the earthenware dish in the middle of the table.

Safety note

Never pour fil'e ferru or brandy directly from the bottle near a flame. Measure it first into a small glass or ladle, then pour it over the prawns. Flambé away from curtains, cupboards, paper napkins and anything flammable.