Ingredients
The following ingredients have 4 Servings
- 1 pound picked crab meat (Rach used king crab leg meat but lump or claw meat is great as well)
- ½ lemon
- 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 large shallots
- finely chopped
- 1 small rib celery
- finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- chopped
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon Calabrian chili paste
- or 1½ teaspoons chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon fennel pollen or chopped fennel seed
- ½ cup dry sherry
- dry vermouth or white wine
- One 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes or Italian cherry tomatoes
- 2 cups passata or one 14-ounce can tomato puree
- Salt and pepper
- to taste
- 12 to 16 ounces egg spaghetti or linguine
- ½ cup chopped fresh herb mixture: chives
- dill and parsley
- ¼ cup drained hot pickled chili peppers
- chopped (optional)
Instruction
- Run your hands through the crabmeat and pick through it carefully for bits of shell or cartilage and toss with lemon juice and Old Bay
- Heat a pot of water for pasta and bring to a boil
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat with EVOO, add butter and melt to bubble, add shallots, celery, garlic, bay, chili paste or flakes, and fennel pollen or fennel seed, and stir 2 to 3 minutes, add sherry, vermouth or wine, and add tomatoes and passata, crush tomatoes if using cherry tomatoes
- Salt water and cook pasta 1 minute less than package directions
- Add crab to sauce (or seared scallops or seared shrimp or mussels or a mixture of seafood rather than crab)
- (If using mussels, place the mussels in the bubbling sauce and cover
- Steam until the mussels open and toss any that do not)
- Reserve ½ cup of salty cooking water from pasta, drain pasta and toss with sauce and crab or seafood, add a little starchy water if necessary to keep loose, adjust seasoning and top with herbs and chopped pickled chilies
