HEADS, YOU WIN.

Stop! Don’t throw out those prawn heads! You’re binning the basis of a beautiful meal. A beautiful, free, zero-waste meal at that.

The Shopper had bought king prawns, and I had unearthed a random fillet of blue-eye trevalla in the freezer. We looked at each other. This called for fregola.  Toasty pearls of Sardinian semolina pasta, fish and prawns in a sort of thick, dirty, dark stew made from the prawn heads. Done.

You don’t need to actually cook the recipe to get a couple of things out of this:

1/ Never throw out your prawn heads and shells. Just fry them up with a few aromatics, add water, simmer and strain, for a full-flavoured, heady prawn stock that can be the start of anything from a French bisque to a Thai hot and sour soup to a Marseillaise bouillabaisse or Singaporean laksa.  If you don’t need the stock on the spot, then freeze it.

I bow here to the late Anthony Bourdain, who said about shrimp (prawn) heads: "Basically, if you don't like what's in a shrimp's head, I can't be your friend." Oh, how we miss you.

2/ The joy of fregola. A traditional Sardinian specialty, it’s actually a type of pasta, the semolina kneaded with water to form small balls (the Latin ferculum means ‘crumb’) that are then dried and toasted.

It’s gorgeous and nutty and absorbs all manner of good flavours, whereas the untoasted variety is about as interesting as any small soup pasta, which is to say, not.

Tip: Most fregola recipes call for 10 to 15 minutes cooking, which is too long - especially if you are then going to add it to a broth or stew. I cook it in simmering salted water or stock for 7 to 8 minutes, and drain it while it’s still that bit starchy/crunchy inside, then spread it out on a tray to cool, and toss it in a little olive oil to prevent it sticking, until I’m ready to go.

You’ll find fregola at The Essential Ingredient, Enoteca Sileno, or good Italian grocers. It’s usually about $10 for 500 grams, enough for 5 meals.

TO MAKE THE PRAWN HEAD STOCK

This is worth making even with just a handful of prawn shells, just decrease the amount of water to suit what you have.

• 12 to 16 green (raw) king prawns

• 2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

• half an onion, finely sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced

• 3 bay leaves or rosemary stalks

1/ Peel the prawns, leaving tails on, and return the prawns to the fridge.

2/ Heat the oil in a fry pan, add the onion, garlic, bay leaves and prawn heads and shells, and fry for 3 or 4 minutes until the heads change colour and start smelling really good. 

3/ Add 400 ml boiling water, stirring well, and simmer for 10 minutes, crushing/bashing the prawn heads with a potato masher to extract the juices.

4/ Strain the contents into a bowl and discard the solids; you should end up with a very ordinary-looking (but about to be spectacular-tasting) brown stock.

Told you it was brown.

FREGOLA WITH PRAWNS

Serves 4

Feel free to add clams, mussels, king salmon, or other, but prawns are the simplest. We threw in a random fillet of blue eye trevalla, cut into fingers, as well.

• 100 g toasted fregola

• 300 ml prawn head stock (see recipe)

• 12 to 16 green (raw) king prawns (yes, the ones whose shells you used)

• 400 ml tomato passata or sugo (I love Mutti)

• Any random fresh tomato lying around, chopped

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• Pinch of dried roasted chilli flakes

• 2 anchovy fillets, chopped

• 1 tbsp tiny salted capers, rinsed

• 1 tsp sugar

• Basil or parsley

1/ Cook the fregola in simmering salted water for 7 to 8 minutes until still a bit starchy in the centre, drain and set aside.

2/ In a pan, combine the prawn head stock with tomato passata, tomato paste and any random tomato lying around (chopped), and gently heat, stirring. Add the garlic, chilli, anchovy, capers, sugar and some chopped basil or parsley, stirring, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

3/ Add the cooked fregola and heat through. Taste for salt and pepper roundabout now.

4/ Either cook the prawns in the stock – just simmer until they turn pink – or quickly pan-fry them in a separate pan until they turn pink and add them at the last minute. Serve with fresh basil or parsley and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

(I know: same dish, but different tea towel, couldn’t decide)

# Use a can of chopped tomatoes if you don’t have passata, it just won’t be as thick. I found a Mutti tomato and basil sugo in the cupboard, which was ace. Or make a quick sugo of your own, recipe here.

# A big dollop of Doodles Creek aioli on top is an excellent idea - but when isn’t it?

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Thanks for reading – feel free to add a comment, or share with a friend, or subscribe for more Jill Dupleix Eats in your inbox every Thursday.  And special thanks to Terry Durack, for being The Shopper around here. And to Sarah Silverton for producing tea towels that almost make you want to do the dishes.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution.