I've always had trust issues with seafood (i.e. I don't trust it not to be hiding bones or bits of shell in a random mouthful).
But recently I've made my peace with white crabmeat and become quite the fan. I've even started cooking with it at home, although I've started at the easy end with this pasta sauce.
My recipe is a mash-up of a two recipes along the same theme that I've tried, dialling up this and dialling down that until it hit just the right spot.
One thing I'd recommend: save yourself A LOT of work by buying ready-cooked white crabmeat (M&S's is awesome). Of course, if you're a dab hand at cooking crabs then have at it, but with the crabmeat taken care of the rest of the recipe is barely any work at all.
Which makes this a perfect summer midweek supper, what with how light this dish is and how little time you need to spend in a hot kitchen. Not to mention that it is fair bursting with lovely big flavours.
STUFF YOU’LL NEED …
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp slightly salted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
¼ tsp chilli flakes
200–300g white crabmeat
250ml dry white wine
small handful chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp capers, drained
2 lemons; juice and zest one, cut other into wedges for serving
½ pack of Linguine
salt and pepper
PREP …
Start by bringing a large saucepan of water to the boil. While you’re waiting, mince your garlic and deseed and finely chop the red chilli.
COOK!
When the water is boiling, salt well and then pop in your linguine and cook per the packet instructions.
While the linguine is cooking, heat the oil and butter in a deep frying pan (a wok is perfect for this) before adding the garlic and chilli. Fry gently for one minute without letting it brown, then add the crabmeat and stir through for another minute.
When the linguine is al dente, drain and then add to the crab mixture together with the parsley, capers, lemon juice and lemon zest. Give everything a good toss together before dishing up with lemon wedges on the side.
There are plenty more recipes, tasty tips and foodie thoughts on Fiona Booth's blog at www.fifigoesnom.com/