Friday 3 July 2015

Shrimps with the conza

15 minutes to prepare Serves 4



Cu avi cchiu sali conza a minestra

 

Nothing but nothing is more Sicilian than topping your pasta with fried breadcrumbs, the conza.
You may think there is nothing wrong with it, as long as you keep your pasta sauce simple: maybe, they use just few tablespoons of EVO oil been flavoured with a garlic clove. 

Well, you would be wrong, they don't. They employ it as cherry-on-the-cake on pasta alla norma (with fried eggplants, tomato sauce, basil and ricotta salata) as well as on a Sicilian pesto seasoned pasta (made of ricotta, almonds and fresh tomatoes). No dish is too heavy, fried food is never enough.

OK, maybe I exaggerated a little bit here. But conza really screams "Sicily" and it is one of the best memories I recall from my childhood summer vacations at grandma's.
Today we will use it to accompany a quite simple second course recipe with shrimps, inspired from Cucchiaio website. 

You may use it to season your pasta, too. Rustic, delicious, wonderfully fragrant...just a heads up: you'll never want it any other way! 


Here are ingredients for the 4-serving recipe:

 

For the sauce

400 g white shrimp shelled
4 tablespoons EVO oil
50 ml dry white wine
1 small onion
1 bunch chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon chili dry seeds
salt

For the conza

80 g almonds
80 g homemade bread crumbs
80 g grated Parmesan cheese
1 pinch chopped parsley
2 tablespoons EVO oil
salt



  1. Prepare the sauce: heat the oil over high heat for a few minutes and braise the chopped onion in it 
  2. Add the chili seeds and the peeled shrimps. Braise the shrimps over high heat, stirring gently from time to time 
  3. Simmer with the white wine until it evaporates. Remove from heat and add the chopped parsley 
  4. Let's proceed with preparing the conza: in a pan heat 2 tablespoons of EVO oil and, when it is hot, add all the ingredients listed for the conza
  5. Toast over medium heat, tossing constantly with a wooden spoon so that it does not burn. Conza is ready as soon as it assumes a deep, golden color of tasty goodness! 
  6. Serve it with shrimps on top

Nutrition Facts are listed for this recipe in the table below. Data is provided per serving.

A Nina, sangu meo 

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