Taglierini with a simple sweet tomato sauce and shrimps

Taglierini is a similar shape to fettuccine or egg noodles and lends itself well to creamy, buttery or light tomato-based sauces and especially little seafood numbers like this one. Feel free to use tagliatelle as well.

Blanch and skin the tomatoes, then halve them and chop into small pieces.

Put a pan of salted water on to heat for the pasta. Put the butter and a couple of lugs of olive oil in a second pan, and fry the prawns, garlic, lemon zest and tomatoes for a couple of minutes. Add the booze and allow to flame if you like. (The flame should go out after about 30 seconds, so don’t worry!) Add the cream, allow to simmer gently for a couple more minutes and then remove the pan from the heat. Season the sauce carefully with salt, pepper and the lemon juice.

Put the pasta into the boiling water — fresh will need only 3 minutes and dried will need to be cooked according to the packet instructions. If your sauce has cooled down then reheat it now. When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander and then toss with the parsley in the pan in which it was cooked. Check the seasoning, then divide on to your serving plates with the sauce on top. Serve straight away, telling your guests to stir the pasta up in their bowls every so often to keep the pasta moist.

Try this: Crumble over a little ricotta or feta cheese – just a little bit – both of these cheeses have a nice texture, go really well with prawns and make it look great.

And this: A handful of spinach added at the end gives a nice vibe — the heat will wilt it into the sauce.

Or this: You can use tinned tomatoes for this dish but you won’t get the freshness or lightness that you get from fresh tomatoes.

• from Jamie’s Kitchen