I am not sure whether to be flattered or not that I was the first of the Directors to be asked to write a piece for the blog about what I cook and eat at the weekend.  Being the close to spherical shape that I am, I should hardly be surprised that our creatives in the marketing team linked my name most immediately with food!  Anyhow.  Here we are.  Something quick and very easy and also, very adaptable recipe that I whipped up over a bottle of our delicious Pineau de Charente on Saturday evening.  Although there are 3 in my family, this is enough for 4:

Ingredients:
350g  Linguine
12 ripe vine tomatoes
4 large cloves of garlic (less if you are on a date)
6 spring onions
2 non-fatty wild salmon fillets
200g raw king prawns
A good handful of fresh basil leaves
Teaspoon of dried chilli flakes or 1 fresh red chilli
Dried orange peel  (can be made in advance and stored in a airtight container. Peel off the orange zest in strips and bake at 75 deg C for a couple of hours until crispy)
Good splash of vermouth
Good splash of decent olive oil

Heat the oven to 110 degrees C (fan assisted) and then brush the salmon fillets with some oil, season and bake in the oven for 15-20mins.  While this is being done quash the tomatoes in your hands so that the pips and most of the water run out.  8 year old girls love doing this, particularly when the pips end up all over Daddy.  Then chop them into a small dice.  Peel and crush the garlic either with a crusher or with the heel of a big cooks knife with some salt.  Finely slice the spring onions.  Put on a large pan of water to boil and add a teaspoon of salt and a dash of olive oil to the water.  Put the linguine into the boiling water, bring back to the boil and simmer according to the instructions on the packet but usually about 7-8 minutes.  Most importantly, taste it.  It’s done when you bite into it and you feel just a little bit of resistance to your teeth.

While the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a pan and gently cook the spring onions, garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes.  Don’t let the garlic brown otherwise it will taste bitter.  After a couple of minutes, add a splash of vermouth.  The add the tomatoes and dried orange peel and cook through for five minutes adding the prawns for the last couple of minutes just to cook through until they have turned pink from grey – cook them too long and they go rubbery.  Season according to taste.

By the time the pasta has cooked, the salmon should be ready which you should take out of the oven and then flake.  Drain the pasta, stir in the tomato and prawn sauce, put it onto a plate, put some of the flaked salmon around it and sprinkle the chopped basil over the top.  Job done. This shouldn’t take you more than half an hour to prepare.

Wine.  A very cold bottle of top Riesling, Gewürztraminer or Pinot Gris goes well with the chilli.  I had some Gewürztraminer and followed this up with the obligatory weekend bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape – Clos des Papes 2002. 

You can substitute the salmon and prawns for any combination of seafood.  Crab goes well as would any other shell fish.

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