Smoked Haddock and Prawn Tagliatelle

Hey Foodies!! This smoked haddock and prawn tagliatelle recipe is a bit special. I first had this when I was a teenager working as a kitchen porter in a small restaurant in Stratford-upon-Avon, in the UK. It was one of the eureka moments when, as a spotty oik with an attitude, I tasted something that would change my view of food forever…

I was on a break from washing all of the post and pans and one of the chefs asked if I was hungry. I’m always hungry so of course, I said yes! The chef then went on to knock this recipe up in front of my eyes. Being a picky kid I thought “Smoked fish? What’s this rubbish?”. But, liking prawns I thought I’d give it a go, and what a revelation. My taste buds tingled and the smokey aroma from the milk and cream sauce was just divine! Yum Yum Yum Yum YUM!!

I got the chef to talk me through the recipe whilst I wrote it down and it’s been a favourite of mine ever since. Very simple to make, pretty healthy and so tasty.

I’ll show you how…

1. Get the ingredients together

Very simple this time as there are only 7 real ingredients for this recipe. Smoked haddock, large cooked prawns, dried tagliatelle, milk, cream, parsley and cornflour. Oh, and some seasoning if you like.

The only thing you may be taken aback a little over is the way the smoked haddock is cooked. You’re going to poach it in milk. Semi-skimmed is probably best. Full fat is simply not needed and skimmed milk is a little too watery.

So, first of all, put a saucepan of water onto slow boil for the pasta. Then do the same with the milk. However, for the fish use a large frying pan for the poaching as you will need to lay the fish flat.

2. Prepare the fish

All you need to do here is lay the fish out on a chopping board and trim the tail and flank where there is no real flesh. Then cut the fish into portions to be served.

3. Cooking the smoked haddock

Once the milk is simmering add a sprinkle of Maldons sea salt. Then lay the haddock in the simmering milk skin side down and poach for 8 minutes, or until the haddock flesh is flaky.

Once cooked remove from the milk and place the fish on some kitchen paper to drain. Also, pad the top to remove any excess liquid. Once drained the smoked haddock should look something like this:

Next, simply pull the flakes of smoked haddock away from the skin and set aside for now.

4. Make the sauce and put the pasta on

With the fish out of the milk, you’ll have left a wonderfully smoked fish liquid that is just begging to be made into a creamy sauce. Firstly, put the pasta on to cook as per the packet instructions and then move onto the sauce.

To do this, pour the smokey milk through a sieve into a saucepan to remove any milk froth. Next, add 3 dessertspoons of double cream. You can also add a knob of butter now if you like but this is optional. Now you need to thicken the sauce.

To thicken the sauce you could make a roux in a separate saucepan and add the sauce slowly. However, I took the easy option and just used some cornflour and water as the thickening agent. Once the sauce is a nice creamy texture add the smoked haddock, prawns, and 3/4 of the parsley. Heat this through and then season to taste.

5. Put it all together

You could just add the cooked pasta to the sauce but I like to do this in a separate pan. Firstly, take a flat frying pan, like the one you used to poach the smoked haddock and pour as much of the sauce as you require for the pasta. Then add the tagliatelle.

Heat this through and away you go! Serve in a bowl and garnish with the rest of the parsley.

A wonderfully smoked haddock and prawn tagliatelle dish. Great for lunch or dinner.

I really can’t overstate how yummy this dish is and really recommend giving this recipe a go. It really is wonderful. Also, why try one of The Yum Yum Club’s other recipes like those below…

OK guys and girls, that’s it for now. The printable recipe is, as always, below and I’d love to hear how you get on.

Thanks for reading and until next time… Steve.