Comfort cook

Red pepper and prawn pasta

An easy summer seafood staple

This makes for a simple but delicious dinner on any night of the week. Bucatini are long, hollow versions of spaghetti – the hole down the centre catches extra sauce. The red peppers in this dish have a distinctive, sweet flavour that creates a particularly tasty base sauce when paired with chilli and garlic. You can swap the prawns for crabmeat or any other seafood.

– 2 red peppers, deseeded, or 3 roasted red peppers from a jar

– 1 green chilli

– 3 large garlic cloves

– rapeseed oil

– 1 tsp fennel seeds

– a generous pinch of salt, plus 2 tsp for cooking the pasta

– 100g raw prawns, shelled

– 250g bucatini

– 50ml double cream

– a large handful of parsley, finely chopped

In a food processor, whizz the peppers, chilli and garlic together until you have fine dice. (Alternatively, finely chop as small as you can.)

Tip the mixture into a saucepan with a generous glug of oil and add the fennel seeds. Sprinkle in the generous pinch of salt and place on a medium heat.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until the red peppers begin to soften (or until everything is heated through if you’re using jarred peppers).

Add the prawns and cook for a further four minutes, or until they are pink and cooked through. Keep the sauce warm while you cook the pasta.

Place a large saucepan of water on a high heat, add the two teaspoons of salt and bring to the boil. Add the bucatini and cook according to the packet instructions, until tender.

Drain, reserving half a cup of the cooking water.

Pour the cream into the sauce and stir thoroughly to combine. Stir through the parsley, then add the pasta, stirring to coat. If the sauce is dry, add a couple of tablespoonfuls of the reserved cooking water to loosen. Serve immediately, with cracked black pepper, if you like.

Serves 2 This is equally as tasty without the prawns – just add extra red peppers to the sauce Recipe from Life Kitchen, by Ryan Riley (Bloomsbury, £20)