Step 1

For the prawn cocktail recipe, peel the shallot and slice it; also peel the ginger and chop it; fry them together in a saucepan with a drizzle of oil for 2-3 minutes, then add the tomato puree and 20 g of water. Add the sugar and a pinch of salt and cook for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, adding, towards the end of cooking, the juice of 1/2 orange and a splash of Tabasco.

Step 2

Pass the sauce through a sieve to make it smoother and let it cool, obtaining an orange ketchup.

Step 3

Mix this ketchup with mayonnaise to create a brightly colored “pink” sauce.

Step 4

Shell the prawns, removing the heads and leaving only the end part of the tail.

Step 5

Open the bodies lengthwise, remove the brown fillet and season them with a pinch of salt, pepper, a splash of orange juice and grated lemon zest.

Step 6

Distribute the sauce into traditional cups and place the prawns on top. Complete with salmon and lumpfish roe to taste.

Step 7

Good to know: shell the prawns and prepare them while you cook the ketchup sauce, cover them and store them in the refrigerator. Season them only when serving them.

Step 8

Yesterday and today: raw prawns instead of cooked prawns, as was originally used. The pink sauce, obtained with homemade ketchup, has a note of orange, which recalls the seasoning of the prawns, further refreshed by the lemon zest. The unusual addition of salmon and lumpfish roe gives flavor and colour.

Step 9

Wine pairing: the prawn cocktail and the Franciacorta Rosé also get along well on a chromatic level. The Brut of Castello Bonomi is a balanced pure Pinot Noir, with pleasant aromas of berries (29 euros, castellobonomi.it).

Recipe: Patrizia Crapanzano, Photo: Riccardo Lettieri, Styling: Beatrice Prada