This is a recipe that makes a small amount of crab meat go a long way. The addition of the tomatoes and courgettes makes the flavor much sweeter and really brings out the taste of fresh crab meat.
If you can get hold of a crab and cook it yourself then the result will be much better but you can get a good result with picked pasteurised crab meat. The brown meat will add lots of flavour.
Ingredients
200g fresh white crab meat
50g brown meat
200g linguine
1 x medium size courgette (cut into 1/2cm strips lengthways)
2 x ox heart tomatoes (peeled chopped and de seeded)
1 clove of garlic (finely sliced)
1 x red chilli (chopped with seeds removed)
3 x tbsp of good olive oil
Method
In a large pot of boiling salted water blanch the courgette strips for 2mins and remove from the water into a colander and put to one side.
To make the sauce you need to heat a large frying pan. Add two tbsp of olive oil and gently cook the garlic and fresh chili but do not color.
Add the brown meat and cook for 1minute then add the fresh chopped tomatoes and cook for 3minutes. They will be wet but that will be absorbed by the linguine when you add it to the frying pan. Add the white crab meat and season.
In the large pot of water you blanched the courgettes in, add the linguine and cook for 2minutes less than the packet suggests. Remove the pasta from the pan with a pair of tongs or pasta scoop and add to the frying pan with the crab and tomatoes.
Add the blanched courgettes to this and a ladle of the pasta water. There my be quite a lot of liquid but don't worry because as you toss the pasta and reduce the liquid this will be absorbed by the linguine which will become very tasty.
Add the remaining olive oil check the seasoning and give the pasta a good toss then serve with a chilled glass of Vermentino.