Gambas Pil Pil
Fiery, garlicky, and packed with flavour, this gambas pil pil recipe is the perfect sharing plate, and brings tapas bar vibes straight to your kitchen table.
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Ingredients
Method
1. Heat a frying pan, and add the olive oil. Add the garlic, chilli, chilli flakes and smoked paprika and cook for less than a minute till the garlic starts to brown.
2. Add the sherry and bring to a boil reduce the heat and cook until reduced by half. Add the butter and melt.
3. Add the prawns and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until just cooked and pink. Add the lemon juice and parsley and season.
4. Serve with crusty bread to mop up all the delicious juices!
This gambas pil pil recipe is a Spanish classic.
Our prawn pil pil recipe is one of Spain’s great tapas dishes - simple, punchy, and made for sharing. They say pil pil is the bubbling, crackling sound the prawns make as they cook in the hot oil, while gambas is the Spanish word for prawns. It’s especially popular in Spain’s tapas bars, where it’s often served with a hunk of crusty bread to mop up the fiery sauce.
Many Spanish kitchens will have their own recipe for gambas pil pil, but ours starts with plenty of olive oil, garlic, red chilli, dried chilli flakes, smoked paprika, and a splash of dry sherry. Add the raw king prawns and sizzle gently until cooked, allowing the sauce to soak through. Finish your prawn pil pil dish with butter, parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Serve this gambas pil pil recipe with plenty of crusty sourdough bread for dunking, or add a simple green salad and a few other tapas favourites, such as blistered padron peppers with olive and basil salt, serrano ham and manchego croquettes, or the classic patatas bravas, for a relaxed Spanish-style feast.
Whether you’re chasing the buzz of a bustling Barcelona bar or just craving a taste of the Med at home, this recipe for gambas pil pil delivers big flavour in every fiery forkful. If you’re looking for more Iberian-inspo, how about Spanish-style pork shoulder steaks, a summer special chilled white gazpacho, or scrumptious Spanish burgers with manchego and chorizo hash browns, and of course no list of Spanish recipes is complete without a sensational seafood paella.
