Pasta with tomatoes and prawns

I was going to make a chick pea curry tonight but after working late and spending an hour buying food for Sunday's barbecue in the supermarket I was starving and couldn't contemplate boiling pulses for an hour. So there were two things in the reduced counter - king prawns and peperonni pizza. I toyed with having pizza but in the end plumped for the prawns. A better choice.

Pasta with tomatoes and prawns (serves 1)

A bowlful of pasta (i used fusilli)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
9 baby plum tomatoes, skinned (if you can be bothered) and halved
1 tsp tomato puree
125g king prawns
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
small pinch chilli flakes
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped
parmesan or manchego, grated

1) If using raw prawns, fry them first with a little olive oil, the lemon juice, chilli flakes and parsley. Set aside. If using cooked prawns (I was on this occasion) just put them in a bowl, squeeze a little lemon juice over the top and combine with the parsley and chilli flakes. Set aside.
2) Now put the pasta onto boil in a pan of boiling, salted water.
3) Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a small pan and cook the garlic for a minute. Then add the tomato puree and continue cooking for a further minute. Next the paprika goes in for another minute and then the tomatoes. Cooking until you have a nice thick sauce. Add the prawns at the end.
4) Now drain the pasta and put in in the pan with the sauce and prawns. Stir everything around to coat the pasta, grate some Parmesan or Spanish Manchego over the top and serve in a bowl.

I don't normally like mixing cuisines but with the paprika and pasta it has a bit of a Spanish and an Italian thing going on. But considering it only takes ten minutes to make it is so tasty so it doesn't matter. I love smoked paprika - you can always taste it lurking in the background but unlike chilli it doesn't hit you with heat. Also it does add an interesting flavour to the slightly zingy prwans which could have been a bit dull. Of course you don't have to eat it with pasta - you could just have the prawns with some crusty bread. That would be more Spanish. I think...