Get Il Buco's recipe: Prawns with Fiori Di Sale
This exquisite tapa bursts with Mediterranean flavor thanks to fiori di sale, the "flower of salt"
Today’s recipe, prawns with fiori di sale, comes from Il Buco, a New York City restaurant opened in 1994. Originally an antique store on cobblestoned Bond Street, today Il Buco offers artisanal Italian imports through an ingredient-driven approach. This recipe embodies Il Buco’s philosophy of doing the least possible to the best possible ingredients.
Il Buco’s patrons often puzzle over what to do when their prawns arrive, wholly intact, at their table. Right before eating, simply peel their shells, and don’t be afraid to slurp up the heads.
With so few ingredients in this recipe, using the highest quality ones is crucial. Hawaiian blue prawns and large-grained fiori di sale from Trapani, Italy are best.
“Salt is so valuable in society that it is the root of the word salary (literally “salt money”) and so essential in the kitchen it is also the root of the word “sauce”. And yet, for so important and integral an ingredient—people rarely think of salt as anything but a health hazard. What we call table salt, like processed sugar or white bread, is optimized for the shelf, not the palate. With crystals formed by mechanical compression, it dissolves almost instantaneously, so more salt is needed to obtain the same flavor.
There are few salt meccas of the world. France has Guerande; the Brits have Maldon; Italy has Trapani.
In Trapani, salt production begins with the movement of water through a series of pans that begin with those closest to the sea. As the waters flow into them over the course of forty to ninety days, the water naturally, gently evaporates, leaving the liquid more and more saturated with salt crystals. The first pan is pure seawater. By the time the water enters the final salt pan, the relentless sun and crushing heat have evaporated nearly all the water. Because the process has occurred naturally—as opposed to by aggressive heating through mechanical means—these crystals maintain the highest level of nutrients and trace minerals. Like everything great at Il Buco, salt takes time and patience.
Fiore di sale is the most labor intensive, rare, and prized of all salts. Like a vintage champagne, it forms only periodically, when the mix of meteorological conditions, including low wind and low humidity, allow a crystalline skein to form spontaneously in the salt pan. Inspired by the methods of the Phoenicians who manufactured salt on the very same salt pans a millennium ago, the salt arrives on Bond Street still wet, laden with the unevaporated saltwater from half a world away.”
Excerpt from Il Buco: Stories & Recipes
Song Pairing: Blue Moon by Many Voices Speak1
Recipe difficulty rating: beginner
Ingredients: (serving size: 4)
10 oz coarse sea salt, ideally fiori di sale (stocked at Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria)
16 Hawaiian blue prawns, unpeeled, deveined, with heads on (can substitute in large shrimp)
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
crushed sea salt, to taste
2 lemons, quartered
Cooking Appliances:
pan
tongs
rolling pin (or similar) for crushing sea salt
Instructions:
Preheat a large pan on high heat. When the pan is piping hot, sprinkle fiori di sale evenly in the pan.
Working in batches, place the prawns flat in the pan so that they do not sit on top of one another. Add the rosemary sprigs to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the prawns until their shells turn opaque, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the prawns to their other side and continue cooking, for another 3 to 4 minutes.
Serve the prawns immediately with a sprinkle of crushed sea salt and a lemon quarter.
What’s your favorite tapas dish? Leave a comment down below and let me know — I’m curious to hear!
for fun, I pair each recipe with a song it reminds me of. What song does this recipe bring to mind for you? Let me know in the comments
looks so simple and amazing. i went to il buco al mare in mmagansett recently and they have these amazing cannellini beans that remind me of the beans & tuna dish. you should recreate them for easy home cooking (see giada did it: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzCeG_FOszC/ but your secret ingredient spin would be chefs kiss)
Nothing beats a fresh tomato sprinkled with Maldon, so wonderful!