Fra diavolo pasta is a bold, spicy Italian-American pasta dish made with prawns, garlic, chilli and a rich tomato sauce that is ready in just 30 minutes. Save this easy spicy pasta recipe for a quick prep meal!
About This Fra Diavolo Pasta
Fra Diavolo is an spicy ItalianAmerican pasta sauce made with chilli flakes and tomatoes. It's commonly served with prawns or shrimp with spaghetti or linguine. It is simple, quick to make and satisfyingly spicy. Fra Diavolo means "Brother Devil" in reference to its spiciness!
Why You'll love Fra Diavolo:
Fra Diavolo is great for a weeknight dinner as it is made within 30 minutes! Serve this with a green salad and garlic bread for a complete meal.
If you love spicy food, you'll love fra diavolo. Usually it is made with just chilli flakes but I make mine even spicier with a couple of small red chillies so that it is boldly spicy.
Fra Diavolo is usually made with shellfish, usually prawns or shrimp, but use whatever protein you like! If you're feeling fancy try lobster or scallops. If you're cooking this for every day try Italian sausage crumbled up (this is SO delicious!) or clams.
Video How To Make Fra Diavolo Pasta
Video: How to Make Fra Diavolo Prawn/Shrimp Pasta
Ingredients For Fra Diavolo Pasta
Pasta - Fra Diavolo is usually made with long pasta like spaghetti or linguine
Prawns or shrimp - We have two types, shelled prawns plus some large ones to put on top. Save prep time by buying shelled shrimp or prawns!
Olive oil - Extra virgin olive oil.
Butter - Salted butter.
Onion - White or yellow onion.
Garlic - Fresh garlic cloves.
White wine - Optional, use a dry white wine. Can omit and use use pasta cooking water instead.
Tinned tomatoes - Diced tomatoes. If you have whole tinned tomatoes, process in food processor or blender.
Tomato paste - Pref double or triple concentrated tomato paste.
Chilli - I never find these chilli flakes very spicy so I use birds eye chillies as well.
Oregano - Dried oregano.
Bicarb - Bicarbonate of soda to neutralise acidity (may not be needed depending on your tomatoes).
Cream - Thickened or pure cream.
Tips For Making Fra Diavolo Pasta
1 - I sometimes puree the diced tomatoes so that they are smoother but I don't always do this. It's up to you whether you like a bit of texture in your tomato sauce.
2 - The large prawns are mainly for presentation. You don't have to use these and can make these with peeled prawns for an easy weeknight dinner.
3 - This recipe has a lot of sauce for the amount of pasta. You can add up to 350g/12.3oz or pasta to this for the amount of sauce.
4 - I add the large presentation prawns right at the end as sometimes the heads can fall if you toss them too much in the sauce.
5 - Bicarb is a chef's trick when dealing with sour tinned tomatoes. It neutralises the acidity of sour tomatoes.
6 - Serve pasta with a wedge of lemon for the prawns.
Step 1 PREPARE - First put a large pot of water onto boil.
Step 2 PRAWNS/SHRIMP - Add oil and half the butter in a large frying pan on medium heat and cook the whole prawns for 2 minutes on each side. Then fry the peeled prawns for 1 minute on each side. Set aside.
Step 3 SAUCE - Add the remaining butter to the pan and saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the white wine and deglaze pan with it (scrape off any bits stuck to the pan) and then add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chilli flakes, chilli, salt, pepper and oregano. Bring to a simmer. Taste- if it is sour add the bicarb. Sauce will foam up for a few minutes but the bubbles will disappear. Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes adding the par-cooked shelled prawns and cream in within the last minute (not the large prawns).
Step 4 PASTA - With 10 minutes to go, the pot of water should be ready. Pop the spaghetti in it and cook until al dente. When done, lift spaghetti into the sauce. If the sauce needs loosening, add 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to the sauce. Gently toss the pasta in the sauce. Add the whole prawns in and gently toss. Place on plate with whole prawns on top. Serve with a wedge of lemon.
Substitution notes:
Short pasta can also be used instead of long pasta. Sub prawns with other types of seafood like clams, white fish or scallops. Italian pork sausage is also excellent with fra diavolo sauce.
Personal Note
This recipe is so simple that I make something like this at least once a month, especially if I don't have a lot of time to cook something up but want something that is going to last for a couple of meals. This pasta has a lot of sauce so it doesn't end up dry even by the following day when you eat it.
I make this so much that I often don't have to look at a recipe for it. It's just one of those super satisfying dishes that we love because of the chilli. Prawns are my favourite followed by Italian pork sausage because the sauce can go either way towards meat or seafood really.
Admittedly I have a good memory for food because it is what interests me but it always makes me laugh when Mr NQN has no memory of food at all like you can ask him 30 minutes after he's eaten what he ate and he won't know. But recently we were talking with friends about petrol prices and he asked me if I remembered when the petrol was 1.15c about 10 years ago when we were driving to Orange.
"Hang on, you can't remember what you ate 30 minutes but you can remember the petrol station we stopped at 10 years ago and the price of the petrol?" I said laughing. Then Carla chimed in that she can remember long sequences of numbers but the second I see a chain of numbers, I completely zone out!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you good at remembering food or numbers? Do you like spicy pastas?
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