Recipe: Crab pasta
8th Oct 2018 Recipes
1 min read
This crab pasta is a classy Autumn dish that will warm you up and fill you with flavour, but the combination of textures and flavours is delicious all year
Crab season is just coming to an end, so it’s a great time to enjoy it. Though I’ll let you in on a secret—and that’s tinned crab. Sure, it might not have the romance of a fresh dressed crab, but it’s fantastic value and means you can whisk up this luxuriant little dish at a moment’s notice. It’s a favourite recipe, with the crabmeat, butter and saffron making it both a decadent dinner party dish and perfect for date night.
Ingredients (Serves 2)
- 1 head of garlic
- 20g butter, softened
- 1-2tsp chilli flakes (to taste)
- 1 pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1tbsp hot water for 10 minutes
- 150g crabmeat
- 1⁄2 lemon, juiced
- 300g fresh tagliatelle or linguine
- 2tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, wrap the head of garlic in tin foil and roast it for 45 minutes, until the softened garlic cloves can be easily squeezed out of each section of the bulb (Although a whole head sounds like a lot, the flavour is mellow and sweet once slow-roasted. For a speedier version, substitute this step for crushing two raw garlic cloves and cooking them straight in the butter)
- Mash the slow-roast garlic with a wooden spoon in the softened butter. Cook over a medium heat until the butter is just starting to bubble. Add the chilli flakes, saffron threads and crab meat. Squeeze the lemon juice in and take the pan off the heat while you cook the pasta
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the tagliatelle. Cook it so the pasta is still a little al dente—fresh tagliatelle takes three minutes, so stop cooking after 2 1⁄2 minutes. Drain the tagliatelle, leaving one to two tbsp of pasta water behind in the pan
- Return the pasta to the pan with the water, add the buttery-crab and the parsley—then put the lid on and shake, so the tagliatelle is coated in the sauce. Divide between two heated pasta bowls, and serve
*Although a whole head sounds like a lot, the flavour is mellow and sweet once slow-roasted. For a speedier version, substitute this step for crushing two raw garlic cloves and cooking them straight in the butter.
