Crab Linguine

Well they say good (or is it bad) things come in threes and this recipe will finish a hat trick of crab recipes off, I did say I have an obsession with crab lately.  While the other dishes have their roots firmly within the orient this dish has come from somewhere closer to home (for me), Italy. This is an easy dish to make and really quick, liberating you from been a slave to the stove allowing you to get on with sitting out in the sun; or if you are me extra time to clean the windows. On a more serious note buying crab is a little easier than you thought, you can go to your local fishmonger where in Leeds there is a quite a good selection to pick from. Alternatively some restaurants offer you the chance to buy direct from them but if you don’t ask you don’t get!

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  What you need:

  • 1 Dressed crab / a crab you dressed yourself
  • Linguine pasta
  • 2/3 Shallots
  • 1 Chilli
  • 1 Medium carrot
  • 1 Stick of celery
  • A hand full of bread crumbs
  • Parsley
  • 2 Garlic cloves
  • 50 g / 1 very big tbsp of mascarpone 
  • A lemon

  
  

  How to make it:

  
  

  1. Get a big pan of boing water on a high heat along with a small frying pan and a large frying pan.
  2. Chop up all your veg (shallot, carrot, chilli, celery and garlic) in 0.5 cm dice, it’s important that the cubes of veg are all roughly the same size; this ensures that all the vegetables cook at the same rate.
  3. Get your pasta in the boiling water with plenty of salt. No salt no flavour. The amount of pasta should be based off how big your crab is and cooked according to the packet instructions, but test it during cooking you still want the pasta to be pasta al dente (have some bite). –Keeping behind a cup of pasta water once the pasta is cooked-
  4. Add olive oil to the large frying pan and throw in the vegetables with some seasoning. Fry for 5 minutes you want the veg to begin to go golden.
  5. While frying off the veg add some butter into the smaller frying pan and toast off some breadcrumbs, they will be done once golden then set aside. The breadcrumbs will give a nice crunchy contrast to the end dish.
  6. To the vegetables add the mascarpone along with a ladle full of pasta water; this will create a thick sauce to coat your pasta. Once the mascarpone has made a sauce add in your crab meat followed by your drained pasta.  Toss the sauce, crab and pasta together with coarsely chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice. Check the sauce for seasoning, and then serve with the small croutons sprinkled on top with a little extra parsley.
     
     -Optionally you could add a splash of a nice white wine to the vegetables after they have gone golden. Remember you want to reduce the wine right down in volume before adding the mascarpone; otherwise the alcohol will ruin the taste of the sauce. -