Crab and chilli pasta

Posted by petra08 on December 11, 2014 · 3 Comments 

I can never resist fresh crab. I spotted some at the fishmongers one morning. I didn’t buy any but after lunch I thought I would just go past and see if he had any left. Guess what, he did and I bought one. They were caught the night before and cooked in the morning, what is there not to love? I thought it was a brilliant purchase and was thinking about crab linguine, yum!

 

I didn’t have any linguine at home and I couldn’t find any in the shop but I found some fresh spaghetti that I thought would go well with the crab. If I had been the least bit ambitious I would have made pasta, pappardelle, long, wide strands of pasta with delicious crab. Maybe next time.

 

I wanted to use the white and the brown crab meat so I picked it out of the crab. If you pick your own crab meat remember to remove the grey gills, also called dead man’s fingers.

 

Brown crab meat 

 

White crab meat 

 

I decided to freeze the shells for a future bisque.

 

 

Fresh crab pasta

preparation time 15 minutes (including picking the crab meat)

cooking time 5 minutes

serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 fresh crab
• 1 red chilli
• 240 gram or 8.5 oz pasta
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 handful of curly kale
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• 2 spring onions
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup cream, I used low fat
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup pasta cooking water
• salt & pepper to taste

Pick the crab. Separate the white and the brown meat. Chop the chilli, I removed some of the seeds for less heat. Quarter the cherry tomatoes. Cut the stem out of the kale and slice the spring onion fine.

 

 

Bring water to a boil. In a small pan place the brown crab meat, the cream and the peeled and crushed garlic clove. Mix and gently heat, don’t let it boil.

When the water is boiling add the pasta. As I had fresh pasta it cooked in 4 minutes. I added the kale with 2 minutes remaining, just long enough for it to wilt.

Save some pasta water and drain the pasta. Mix in the pasta with the brown crab meat mix, add the pasta water and taste with salt and pepper. Mix in the cherry tomatoes, the spring, chopped chilli, the white crab meat and give it a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil and some freshly ground pepper just before serving.

 

 

Next time I will add another clove of garlic and keep all of the chilli seeds but I loved the crab flavour with the pasta. The dish was super quick to make and this was a great way to make a satisfying dinner for two.

 

 

 

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Filed under Chilli, Crab, Fish & Seafood, Garlic, Kale, Main course, Pasta, Recipe, Spring onion · Tagged with crab meat, crab pasta, fresh pasta