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  • Prawn Saganaki Youvetsi

    Prawn Saganaki Youvetsi

    Introduction to Prawn Saganaki Youvetsi

    Saganaki Youvetsi is a beautiful fusion of two iconic Greek culinary traditions: the rich, comforting youvetsi, a baked orzo dish simmered in tomato sauce and the oven baked and sizzling feta cheese Saganaki. This modern version swaps the usual lamb or beef for tender shrimp, pairing it with diced tomatoes, aromatic garlic, and a generous amount of fresh basil. Finished with a crumble of feta, it’s a dish that delivers bold flavor with a rustic elegance. Served straight from the pan, Saganaki Youvetsi is as much about the experience as it is about the taste, a perfect Greek meze or main course that invites you to dive in, share, and savor.

    This recipe is inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s Orzo with Prawns, Tomato and Marinated Feta, featured in his cookbook Ottolenghi SIMPLE. His take on this comforting dish brings together the ease of one-pan cooking with bold, Mediterranean flavors. While my version leans more toward the traditional Greek Saganaki Youvetsi, it carries the same spirit of simplicity, freshness, and satisfaction that makes Ottolenghi’s version so popular.

    Instructions (the way I made it this time)

    Start with breaking up 200 grams of Feta cheese into about 1 to 2 cm chunks.

    Then to a small frying pan add 4 teaspoons of fennel seeds and toast them on medium heat until they get fragrant and slightly change color, you will get some nice whiffs of anise. Keep moving the seeds around the pan to prevent burning them.

    When toasted transfer them to a mortar and pestle and crush them, do not grind them all the way to a powder.

    Get the bowl of feta pieces and season this with half of the fennel seeds and about ¼ of a teaspoon of chilli flakes and mix carefully with a spatula, cover this with some plastic wrap and set aside.

    Next step is to roughly chop the garlic, I used 3½ cloves, because we love garlic but adjust this amount to your liking.

    Put the garlic on a cutting board and smash them with the side of your knife and then roughly chop them and make sure your cutting board is stable and not wobbly when you smash and cut them, to prevent any injuries.

    Get a medium size pot for your 700 ml of vegetable stock, I used a Mediterranean vegetable stock and it paired amazingly.

    After the stock is made I put the hob on setting 1 to keep it warm. Next up is to get a large sauté pan with a lid and put it on a medium/high heat. Add 2 table spoons of olive oil, 250 grams of orzo, a pinch of salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Fresh ground is better than pre-ground, which can loose its flavour.

    Fry this for about 5 to 6 minutes under constantly stirring. Until the orzo gets a nice golden brown tan. Then remove from the pan and set aside in a bowl.

    Put the sauté pan back on the hob again on medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, ¼ teaspoon of chilli flakes, the rest of the fennel seeds, garlic and 2 teaspoons of orange juice. Fry this untill the garlic starts to brown slightly, then add the diced tomatoes and the stock, a pinch of salt and again a generous grind of black pepper (you will not regret this).

    Bring this to a boil, about 3 to 4 minutes), then stir in the fried orzo and lower the heat till a simmer. Cover with the lid and leave this simmering for about 15 minutes and stir frequently, every 4 to 5 minutes, to prevent the orzo from sticking and burning to the bottom.

    In the meantime get a good handful of basil leaves, wash them and cut them very roughly.

    After 15 minutes remove the lid and cook the orzo a bit longer for about 3 to 4 minutes till the orzo is nice and soft and the tomato sauce has thickened a bit as well. Stir in the prawns and cook these for about 2 to 3 minutes till the prawns are pink and cooked. Stir in the basil leaves.

    Plate it immediately and sprinkle the seasoned feta on top.

    Saganaki Youvetsi

    Print Recipe
    Prep Time 20 minutes
    Cook Time 45 minutes
    Servings: 4 people
    Ingredients Equipment

    Ingredients
      

    • 200 grams feta cheese
    • 4 tsp fennel seeds
    • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
    • 250 grams orzo
    • 3 1/2 cloves garlic
    • 2 tsp orange juice
    • 1 tin diced tomatoes 400 grams
    • 700 ml vegetable stock
    • 400 grams prawns deveined and shell-off
    • 1 handful basil leaves
    • 75 ml olive oil extra virgin
    • black pepper freshly ground
    • salt

    Equipment

    • 1 bowl
    • 1 mortar and pestle
    • 1 cutting board
    • 1 chef knive
    • 1 small frying pan
    • 1 medium size sauce pan
    • 1 sauté pan

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    Recipe Rating




  • easy Greek tzatziki

    this easy and quick 5 ingredient is all you need for a delicious sauce that goes with almost anything coming from the grill.

    If the real Greek yoghurt is not available to you then you can use Greek style yoghurts, but it won’t be the same.
    Below is the Fage yoghurt (pronounced fa-yay)of 150 grams that I used for this recipe. You also have other quantities, like 450 grams) depending on the amount of tzatziki you’re making. The ratio cucumber to yoghurt is about ½ cucumber (depending how thick the cucumber is) per 150 grams.

    I start with getting a box grater and grate the cucumber into to a salad spinner. This is to get rid of the excess juices, but if you like the tzatziki less thick grate the cucumber directly into the bowl. If this is your first time, use the salad spinner method but keep the juices, this way you can add the delicious cucumber juices later on when the tzatziki is too thick for your liking.

    Next step is to get out the garlic and the microplane. I love using the microplane because then I don’t have to cut of the hard stems of the garlic and the is no need to chop the garlic because the microplane does it all for you.

    Mix all the ingredients into a bowl and add salt and some really good quality olive oil. I have some Greek salt available to me, but only because my mother in law only wants to use that when she is visiting us and cooking. I know, salt is salt….unless it’s smoked salt, but don’t use that on the tzatziki.

    Then there is nothing left to mix it all together and drizzle some of that good olive oil on top.

    καλή όρεξη (bon appétit)

    tzatziki

    authentic Greek sauce
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 0 minutes
    Ingredients Equipment

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 cup Greek yoghurt or greek style
    • cucumber
    • 3 garlic cloves
    • 1 olive oil extra virgin
    • 1 pinch salt

    Equipment

    • 1 box grater
    • 1 bowl for mixing
    • 1 salad spinner optional
    • 1 microplane or any other fine grater you might have
    • 1 flexible spatula
  • authentic spaghetti carbonara

    authentic spaghetti carbonara

    Spaghetti Carbonara is one of the most famous pasta dishes from the Roman cuisine. All you need are 5 simple ingredients.

    all ingredients for a spaghetti carbonara

    I started with 300 grams of guanciale.

    guanciale
    and since I have a huge wok available I use that for my carbonara
    guanciale after a couple of minutes on medium heat
    the guanciale starts looking opaque after a couple of minutes on medium heat

    while the guanciale was getting opaque, I mixed in the meantime 2 eggs with 2 egg yolks together with the pecorino.

    In the meantime the spaghetti was in a big pot boiling 2 minutes short of what was recommended on the packaging. Take the guanciale from the heat (this is to make sure you don’t make scrambled eggs but mix them in to make a sauce)

    Spaghetti Carbonara

    the step by step photos are above.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 30 minutes
    Cook Time 15 minutes
    Servings: 2 people
    Ingredients Equipment Method

    Ingredients
      

    • 150 grams spaghetti
    • 100 grams grated pecorino romano
    • 150 – 200 grams guanciale
    • 4 eggs of which one 2 yolks
    • freshly ground black pepper

    Equipment

    • 1 big sauce pan
    • 1 big pot to boil the water
    • 1 grater the finer the grater the better
    • 1 sharp knife
    • 1 cutting board
    • 3 bowls for the egg mix, egg whites and pecorino

    Method
     

    1. put the big pot of water on your heat source and bring it to a boil and then add the spaghetti.
    2. in a bowl mix together the eggs, egg yolks and the grated pecorino.
    3. cut the guanciale in into the pieces of your liking, strips, dices or slices. put this in your sauce pan (or in my case the wok) and slowly bring up the heat. cook this until the guanciale is is cooked evenly and not too crispy. take it of the heat and set it aside.
    4. from the pot of boiling water add the spaghetti straight into your hot pan with guanciale and saving the bioled water, you might need this later. When mixed together add the pecorino and egg mixture and stir constantly to create a smooth sauce, when it's too thick you can add a ladle or 2 of the preserved pasta water.