Fast, impressive, and the recipe for the kind of BBQ where people are eating standing up.
Prawns on a grill are one of summer's great simple pleasures — high heat, a short time, and something that goes from raw to spectacular in under five minutes. The challenge with grilled prawns is that they need very little to be good and benefit enormously from the one right addition. This is that addition: a warm Smoked Artichoke Tapenade butter spooned over the prawns the moment they come off the grill, melting into the shells and running down into the meat while everything is still sizzling.
The tapenade loosens into the butter in a way that creates something greater than either ingredient alone — the cold-smoked artichoke and Castelvetrano olive base gives the butter a savoury, earthy depth, while the capers and lemon already in the tapenade brighten it into something that tastes deliberately composed. The prawns absorb it through their shells in the minute they rest before serving, so that when someone pulls a shell off at the table the meat underneath is already coated in the sauce.
Charred lemon halves alongside — grilled cut side down until caramelised and slightly smoky — add a sweetness to the squeeze that raw lemon cannot match and makes the whole plate taste like it came from somewhere with a very good outdoor kitchen.
Serves 4 as a starter, 2–3 as a main · ~20 minutes · Grill required
Ingredients
— 800 g large raw prawns, shell on, deveined
— ½ cup Fume-eh Smoked Artichoke Tapenade
— 150 g unsalted butter
— 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
— ½ teaspoon chili flakes
— 2 lemons, halved
— Fresh flat-leaf parsley, a generous handful, roughly chopped
— Flaky sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
— Extra virgin olive oil for grilling
— Good bread, for mopping
Method
1. Make the tapenade butter first. Melt the butter in a small saucepan on the side burner of your grill or on the stovetop over medium-low heat. Add the sliced garlic and chili flakes and let them sizzle gently for 2 minutes until the garlic is just golden. Remove from the heat and stir in the Smoked Artichoke Tapenade. The butter will turn a deep golden green and smell extraordinary. Keep warm on the edge of the grill while you cook the prawns.
2. Pat the prawns dry with paper towel and toss with a generous drizzle of olive oil, flaky salt, and a crack of black pepper.
3. Heat your grill to high. Place the lemon halves cut side down directly on the grate and grill without moving for 3–4 minutes until the cut surface is deeply caramelised and slightly charred. Remove and set aside.
4. Place the prawns on the hottest part of the grill in a single layer. Cook for 2 minutes per side — no more — until the shells are bright pink and lightly charred in spots and the flesh is just opaque. Prawns move quickly on a hot grill; have everything else ready before they go on.
5. Transfer the prawns immediately to a wide serving platter or board. Spoon the warm tapenade butter generously over everything — be liberal, letting it run between the prawns and pool on the platter. Scatter fresh parsley over the top. Finish with a pinch of flaky salt. Arrange the charred lemon halves alongside for squeezing.
6. Serve immediately with good bread for mopping up the tapenade butter from the platter. This is the most important part of the recipe and should not be treated as optional.