The trend for small plates has sent Venetian cuisine to the top of the foodie agenda and this simple pasta dish straight from the City of Bridges (via one of London’s most exclusive Italian restaurants, Bocca di Lupo) won’t disappoint.

Preparation time

30 minutes

Cooking time

25 minutes

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

50g butter
Half a small red onion or 1 shallot, thinly sliced across the grain
Seasoning
1 medium head radicchio di Treviso (or a small radicchio, around 200g), shredded into 3-5mm strips
200g peeled raw prawn tails
60ml white wine
200ml double cream
120g dried tagliolini or 150g fresh
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

Method

Step 1: Melt the butter over a medium heat, add the onion and a pinch of salt and fry for a few moments. Add the radicchio and gently sauté for 4 or 5 minutes until wilted.

Step 2: Add the prawns, followed by the wine and let it boil for a few minutes until most of it has evaporated.

Step 3: Add the cream to the sauce and at the same time put the tagliolini into a pan of boiling, salted water. Let both pots boil until the tagliolini is still quite undercooked (just over half the recommended cooking time) and the sauce is just runnier than cream.

Step 4: Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, toss together over the heat for a minute, make sure the pasta is well-coated. Season and transfer to a baking dish about the size of a piece of A4. Sprinkle with Parmesan and brown in a very hot oven or under the grill.

From Bocca Cookbook by Jacob Kenedy (£30, Bloomsbury)

Tagliolini au gratin with prawns and treviso