Change Up Your Typical Pasta Dish with Crab
by Marc Matsumoto on Jan 23, 2012
This simple crab pasta takes less than 30 minutes to make, but tastes like a lot more work went into it.
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Having a well-stocked pantry can be a real lifesaver when work starts overflowing into your personal time. By well-stocked pantry, Im not talking about boxes of mac and cheese and Styrofoam cups of instant noodles. Im talking about a made-mostly-from-scratch meal that tastes like it could have come from a good Italian restaurant.
The trick is to have a few different types of dried pasta, good olive oil, canned stewed tomatoes (preferably ones that actually come from San Marzano), canned Italian tuna and canned crab in the pantry. Bonus points if you also happen to have a lemon and some good Parmigiano-Reggiano on hand. With this handful of ingredients you can come up with dozens of different quick weeknight pastas.
Canned crab and Italian Tuna arent the cheapest items, but if you consider the alternative of ordering takeout, theyre a steal. The best part is that theyll keep in your pantry for months, if not years.
This simple crab pasta takes less than 30 minutes to make, but tastes like a lot more work went into it. A thick garlicky tomato sauce, infused with the sweetness of ripe bell peppers and the umami of crab, coats each strand of pasta.
By using both stewed tomatoes and tomato paste in the sauce you concentrate the flavor of the tomatoes making it taste like youve simmered the sauce for hours. A sprinkle of fresh herbs added in at the end not only boosts the visual appeal, they add a fresh flavor to the dish that will convince anyone eating the pasta that you were cracking crab legs an hour earlier.
Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marcs been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.