Prawn risotto

Prawn risotto

Try this authentic seafood risotto, typical of Venetian cooking

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Cook time

Cook 1 hr - 1 hr 10 mins

Method

  1. Bring 1litre/13⁄4pints water to the boil in a large pan, add 1 tbsp salt, then tip in the prawns, garlic and bay and return to the boil for 3-5 minutes until cooked, depending on the size of the prawns. Cool then shell the prawns. If they are large, you may wish to slice them, but leave smaller ones whole. Return the heads and shells to the stock and continue to boil for 20 minutes.
  2. Put a medium size, heavy bottomed pan with a tight fitting lid on a low heat. Tip in the olive oil and 25g/1oz of the butter, and cook the shallots or onion for 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add 1 tbsp of stock to stop them colouring, if necessary.
  3. Stir in the rice so it absorbs all the buttery oil. When it is opaque and rustling as you stir, pour in all the wine. Keep stirring while the rice absorbs the wine - it should not evaporate into the air, so keep the heat low.
  4. Meanwhile, strain the stock, return to the pan, top up with water and turn up the heat. Turn up the heat under the rice, too, as you need a moderate to lively heat. Stir the rice and add stock as needed to keep a veil of water above the level of rice for 10 minutes.
  5. Add the prawns and tomato purée. From this point on I start to add less and less stock every time, to avoid the risk of forcing the rice to absorb too much stock. Start to taste the odd grain of rice. You want to stop cooking when it still has a tiny crunchy uncooked bit in the centre.
  6. Season the risotto with salt and white pepper. Take the pan off the heat, add the remaining butter and enough stock to cover the risotto by about 2.5-5cm/1-2in, you have to judge how much it will absorb. Stir well, cover and leave it to rest for 10 minutes. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve at once.

Per serving

290 kcalories, protein 19g, carbohydrate 14g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 3g, fibre 0g, salt 0.6 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, June 2002.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo jerseyporter

    30 November 2007

    jerseyporter rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I cheated a bit (sorry, Ainsley!). I make risotto a lot so I used my usual base of onion, garlic, white wine and carnaroli rice (the best rice for risotto, I think) but cheated with a fish stock cube and a �3 bag of Iceland ready-cooked king prawns! It was still delicious, so if I ever make it Ainsley's way it certainly won't be any less tasty. A big hit with the children, too.

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  • Binder photo weeble cooks

    16 July 2009

    weeble cooks rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I followed the recipe. Next time I may add some peas.

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  • Binder photo the Wainwrights

    28 February 2010

    the Wainwrights rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo lilywhite

    10 June 2010

    lilywhite commented on this recipe

    Trying this receipe tonight!!

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  • Binder photo NinaM

    24 July 2010

    NinaM commented on this recipe

    This recipe is by Carmelita Caruana, not by Ainsley Harriott. It was published in the BBC Good Food Magazine in June 2002 as part of a 3 part series by Carmelita Caruana - Carmelita's Authentic Italian Cookery. It was on page 72, word for word as above and with the same photo.

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  • Binder photo Glenis

    17 February 2011

    Glenis commented on this recipe

    My first ever try at making a Risotto, I changed it a bit by adding frozen king prawns, green beans and butternut squash, it looks and tastes delicious.

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  • Binder photo aly

    10 March 2011

    aly rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    just made this and it was delicious will be definately making again!

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  • Binder photo house husband

    19 May 2011

    house husband commented on this recipe

    Hi Carmelita? Espanol, O' Italiano??? Your recipe is perfecto! Gracias / Gratsi. Jerseyporter, please go with the flow. I nearly used fish stock as a bottle job, but NO I used the skins and shell of the prawns, (Large Tiger) From Macros' about £6.00 for 2 doz. a good slurp of vino blanco (White wine) Parsley, thinly sliced garlic, a couple of tablespoons chopped onion and celery plus seasoning for 20 mins or so. in another pan fried off chopped onion, corgette and celery, half way, added arboro rice and fried till slighly browned (thanks Carluchio) Strained stock off and added to rice pan, boil / simmered down. 5 Mins before serving added halved prawns, and some langostines in shell (Macro's about £3.50 for about 24) I'm not advertising Macro! But they have some good seafood. Anyway, O.M.G! This was fantastico! Sort of dish you can do your own thing, but you have to know what you are doing. Try mine for a delight! I'm not a risotto lover - I am now

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  • Binder photo Bolette

    24 August 2011

    Bolette rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Love this recipe!

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  • Binder photo Simply Sue

    20 June 2012

    Simply Sue commented on this recipe

    This has become one of my husband's favourites. I used ready made fish stock and added ready-shelled king prawns & a mixed seafood pack (mussels, calamari & small prawns), which seems to work well and makes it easy as a quicker supper dish.

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  • Binder photo The_Prowler

    18 September 2012

    The_Prowler rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    In the first step it says add one table spoon of salt to the water. I only made enough for two people, so halved everything. Even so, 1/2 a tablespoon of salt seemed like loads... and it was. The food was too salty. I kind of messed this up though because I bought shelled prawns and didn't have any fish stock. Just had the garlic and bay leaf in the water, so it wasn't that tasty! Even so I think it was missing some veg

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  • Binder photo kittypie

    06 March 2013

    kittypie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Followed the recipe word by word, except I added a little mascarpone with the butter at the end, and I must say it was the best risotto I've had. Ever! Really matches the ones I've eaten in top restaurants in Italy.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Cook time

Cook 1 hr - 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

Print this recipe
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Per serving

290 kcalories, protein 19g, carbohydrate 14g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 3g, fibre 0g, salt 0.6 g

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