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Serves four
INGREDIENTS
250g/ 8 oz shell shaped pasta
350g/ 12 oz boneless skinless fish - salmon
125g/ 4 oz peeled and cooked prawns
50g/ 2 oz mayonnaise
50g/ 2 oz fromage frais
1 lemon
1 head of fennel
To poach the fish:
1 bay leaf
2 peppercorns
A squeeze of lemon juice
METHOD
Put a saucepan of water with a good pinch of salt in it on to boil. Cook the pasta for three minutes. Take it off the heat, put the lid on and leave it for six or seven minutes by which time it will be perfectly cooked.
You can put the fish into a steamer or colander over the pasta and steam it, so when the lid goes on it will cook nicely. If you prefer, you can poach the fish in water separately with a bay leaf, a squeeze of lemon juice and a couple of peppercorns. It will need to simmer for just 5 or 6 minutes.
Drain the fish and the pasta and let them cool.
Cut the lemon in half and squeeze half on to the pasta and half on to the fish as they are cooling. When they are quite cool, put the pasta in a neat shape around the edge of an oval dish. Trim and chop the fennel finely, flake the fish and mix the two together so you have a mixed crunchy texture with the softness of the fish.
Blend together the mayonnaise and the fromage frais, and mix it in with the fish and fennel. Pile it into the middle of the pasta, and decorate it with the prawns round the border of the pasta, so you have a greeny-white (or pink if you used salmon) centre, the pale creamy gold of the pasta and the pink of the prawns. It will keep in the fridge for a good couple of hours.
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