Bacon Wrapped Prawns with Pesto Linguinni

Tonight it's pasta night, I decided to recreate my famous pesto sauce and bacon wrapped prawns. This recipe serves 2 hungry people, and it takes approximately 30 minutes to make.

Ingredients for the Shrimp:

Half a pound of large unpeeled shrimp, (6 or 8 shrimp)
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 package of thin cut bacon

Ingredients for the Pesto Sauce:

2 garlic cloves
Pinch of salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Small block of Parmigiana Regiano
10 -12 Walnuts
Small heavy whipping cream
1 package of thin cut bacon
1/2 pound of fresh green basil leaves

Preparation:

Grab the shrimp and peal them using your fingertips to penetrate the shell and pushing outward the skin will break easily. After cleaning all of the shrimp you need to devein them, bend the shrimp into a a medium arch and with a very sharp knife gently cut a straight line through the top section of the shrimp. Note: Do not go too deep on your cut, the vein is not even in the middle of the body, you don't want the shrimp to loose its' shape.

Put the shrimp in a bowl and sprinkle salt and pepper, not too much, just enough to give it a little bit of flavor, remember that the bacon is going to have enough saltiness by itself.

Extend the shrimp and grab a piece of bacon, start from the tail end of the shrimp and start wrapping it very very tightly overlapping between loops. You should not need toothpicks to hold the bacon in place, when the bacon is tight enough it will stick when cooking.

Heat a medium non sticky pan, medium high temperature should so it, no olive oil added, put the shrimp with the end of the bacon strip directly on the pan, and sear for about 7 minutes on each side and then stand them so the bottom would be cooked as well.

Meanwhile boil 1 cup of water with some olive oil and salt and make 1/2 a pack of linguinni, it takes around 9 minutes for the pasta to be aldente.

In a mixer put 1/3 of a cup of olive oil, 1/3 of a cup of cream, the garlic cloves, some salt and pepper, the walnuts, 2 small strips of Parmesan cheese and all the basil leaves (do not mix the steams or flowers) Mix until it gets a pasty texture. Try the mix and add more salt or pepper accordingly, if it is too thick you may want to add a tablespoon of water or a little bit more of olive oil.


In a bowl mix the pesto sauce with the cooked pasta. Then serve the pesto pasta in a plate and top it with the shrimp, shave some Parmesan on top.