Spanish Gambas al Ajillo with Sizzling Garlic Prawns, Chili and Crusty Bread

Season the dried prawns lightly with salt and set aside while you start the oil.

Ingredients

• Serves 4 as a tapa:
• 400g raw peeled prawns, deveined, patted dry
• 120ml good extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 dried guindilla chilies or 1 dried red chili, sliced
• 1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika (pimenton)
• 1 tbsp dry sherry (fino) or white wine
• Salt
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• To serve:
• Crusty bread
• Lemon wedges

Instructions

1. Season the dried prawns lightly with salt and set aside while you start the oil.
2. Pour the olive oil into a wide terracotta cazuela or heavy frying pan and set over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and dried chili and warm them gently — you want the garlic to turn pale gold and perfume the oil slowly, never to burn, which would make it bitter.
3. When the garlic is just golden and fragrant, turn the heat up to medium-high and add the prawns in a single layer.
4. Cook for about 1 minute on each side, just until the prawns turn pink and curl — they take very little time and must not overcook, or they go rubbery.
5. Stir in the smoked paprika and the splash of sherry, let it sizzle for a few seconds, and pull the pan off the heat while everything is still bubbling.
6. Scatter generously with chopped parsley.
7. Bring the pan straight to the table while the oil is still spitting and sizzling.
8. Eat the prawns straight from the dish, then mop up every drop of the golden garlic oil with torn crusty bread — the oil is the best part.
9. Gambas al ajillo is one of the great pillars of the Spanish tapas table, found bubbling away in terracotta cazuelas in bars from Andalusia to the Basque Country. It is the essence of Spanish cooking — a handful of superb ingredients and almost no technique beyond knowing exactly when to stop: good olive oil, sweet garlic, a hint of dried chili and the freshest prawns, brought together in minutes. The secret is gentle patience with the garlic and a confident hand with the prawns, so they stay sweet and just-set. Served sizzling, with cold sherry or wine and plenty of bread for the garlicky oil, it is the dish that proves the Spanish know better than almost anyone how to make a feast out of very little.