Recipe: Pea Sformato with Prawns

Ingredients for One

For the Pea Sformato:

1 cup of  pureed peas (from frozen, canned or fresh peas)  

1 cup of milk

some plain flour

10g butter
20g grated Parmesan

some breadcrumbs

1 beaten egg white

a pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper

For the prawns:

a handful of whole un-shelled prawns

2 shallots

a drizzle of olive oil

1 cup of Marsala

Preheat the oven to 180 or gas mark 4. Butter the inside of your smallest oven dish (about 10 by 15 cm) or a couple of ramekins if you have them and then coat the buttered sides with breadcrumbs. 

Make some béchamel by heating the milk with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Whilst this is heating up, melt the butter in another saucepan adding little bits of  flour gradually until you have just about formed a paste. Then combine it with the milk and stir it very well until there are no lumps and it is nicely thickened.

Next, add the pea puree ( this can be flavoured with other things too if you like, for example, I put anchovies in mine and heated them together so that the small fillets had dissolved into the puree) and the grated Parmesan to the béchamel and stir. Gently fold in the beaten egg white ensuring that it doesn't lose any air in the process and then pour it into the dish or ramekin you have prepared. Top with a sparse layer of breadcrumbs and bake for about half an hour until the breadcrumbs are beginning to look slightly golden. 

During the final 10 minutes in which the sformato is cooking, heat the olive oil in a frying pan whilst you finely chop the two shallots. Fry the shallots and then add the prawns along with the Marsala with about 5 minutes to go so that the alcohol reduces and the prawns are cooked.

Turn out the sformato whole or cut into slices and serve with the prawns immediately. 

* Note: to give the prawns a bit of a kick, add a chopped fresh chilli when you fry the shallots.