Crab Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic, Chilli and Lemon
Sweet white crab with tomatoes, garlic, lemon, wine and chilli, loaded with fresh herbs. Serve with linguine, spaghetti or fettuccine, and perhaps a crisp salad and some garlic bread on the side. Fresh and zesty with a hint of chilli, this pasta sauce manages to be both light and delicate whilst packing a huge flavour punch at the same time.
Ingredients
Pasta:
- 350 – 400g dried pasta, (depending how hungry you are)
- 2 teaspoons fine salt
Crab sauce:
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 16g/4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes
- 160g tomatoes, finely chopped
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1½ teaspoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
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4 tablespoons white wine
- 275g white crab meat
- 6 – 8 tablespoons pasta water
- juice of 1 lemon
- 30g chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, coriander, basil
Instructions
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The pasta: bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil.
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When boiling add the salt and the dried pasta. Cook according to packet instructions and for 1 minute less than the recommended time, this is normally around 10 – 12 minutes.
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The crab: straight after putting the pasta on to cook, prepare the crab pasta sauce. Put the oil into a medium sized saucepan over a moderately high heat.
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When hot add the garlic, chilli flakes, tomatoes, lemon zest, honey, salt and pepper and fry for 2 minutes.
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Add the wine and boil for roughly 1 minute to reduce slightly. Take off the heat and allow the flavours to infuse whilst the pasta continues to cook.
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Meanwhile check to see if the pasta is cooked. Remove 1 cup of the pasta water and then drain well.
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Add the crab to the garlic and chilli mixture and stir well.
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Combine the pasta, pasta water, (1½ tablespoons pasta water per person) and the crab mixture and mix well. Cook on moderately high for 1 – 2 minutes, ensuring everything is piping hot and the sauce is coating the pasta.
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Turn the heat down and add the lemon juice and herbs.
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Stir well and remove from the heat. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning if required.
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To serve: serve the crab pasta in individual warmed bowls, sprinkled with chopped chopped herbs, drizzled with very good quality olive oil and a wedge of lemon. Serve with a green salad, with toasted ciabatta or fresh/garlic bread on the side to mop up the delicious juices.
Recipe Notes
Equipment:
- Large and medium saucepans
- Chopping board and knife
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Grater
- Reamer/juicer
Pasta: any pasta will work with this dish. My favourite is linguine but fettuccine and spaghetti work really well too. I usually use dried pasta; you could also use fresh pasta but check the cooking times. It normally takes only 2 -3 minutes.
Crab sauce:
- this dish has a delicious spicy warmth to it. If you prefer milder flavours, feel free to reduce the amount of chilli or omit it altogether – it will still be delicious!
- equally, you could alter the amounts of garlic, lemon and herbs to suit your own palate.
- Rather than chopping the garlic, ginger, tomatoes and herbs I use my mini food processor.
- I peel and halve the garlic cloves and blitz until finely chopped. Remove from the processor.
- I then put all the herbs in and pulse until finely chopped. Remove from the processor.
- Finally, I even throw the tomatoes in to chop. Charlotte and I like the tomatoes in quite big chunks, chopped by hand, but Andrew and Emma like finely chopped – if I’m going for finely chopped, then I always use the processor.