Capellini con Granchio
A fresh, simple and delicate summery pasta with spanner crab, baby asparagus, parsley, chilli, lemon and angel hair pasta.
The pasta is very simple and quick to make with few ingredients but it can be deceptively hard to master because both the Capellini and crab meat cooks really quickly and that makes it very easy to overcook and turn the dish into a mushy and gluggy mess. The key is to make sure all ingredients are prepped, all finely chopped and ready to cook before you start and to have a pot of boiling water for the pasta already going as you need to literally dunk the pasta into the water for a minute or until the strands just soften into the water, as well as cook the crab in another pan in tandem with the other ingredients so they fully cook at the same time once you combine them.
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Serves- 3-4
Ingredients- 8
Cooking Time- 25 minutes
Skill Level- Moderate
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Ingredients
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of chilli oil optional
- 1 bunch of baby asparagus, finely sliced
- 300g of capellini/angel hair pasta
- 300g of raw crab meat. I’ve used raw spanner crab.
- 5-6 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Method
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil for your pasta.
- Meanwhile, heat a pan with a generous glug of olive oil over medium heat.
- Add in garlic and chilli/chilli oil and simmer in the oil on medium for 1 minute or until fragrant.
- Place the pasta into the boiling water and cook for only 1-2 minutes until just reaching al dente.
- Add the baby asparagus to the pan and saute for a minute until tender.
- Add the crab meat to the pan and cook for 30 seconds until the meat starts to turn opaque and white in colour.
- Transfer the pasta into the pan with a few generous ladles of the starchy pasta water and stir to combine.
- Turn off the heat in the pan and add the parsley, lemon zest and juice and stir to combine.
- Serve and enjoy immediately.
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Watch the Process
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