Pazzo Blue Crab And Pasta Recipes

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a 16-inch fry or braising pan with high sides (3 inches) over medium heat. Saute garlic and shallots until opaque, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add crabs in the shell and cook, stirring occasionally, until juices leak into pan and crabs are turning red, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add the wine.
• Bring to a boil and cook for 2 more minutes, or until the wine has cooked off and juices have thickened.
• Lower heat.
• With tongs, transfer crab pieces to a large ovenproof serving bowl; cover and keep warm in a 200-degree oven.
• Add tomatoes (including juice) to pan.
• With a wooden spoon, scrape any crab bits from the bottom of the pan.
• Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.
• Lower heat.
• Add half of the cooked crabs, fresh herbs, red pepper flakes and salt and boil gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally and crushing tomatoes with a potato masher or spoon. Reduce heat as sauce thickens, until sauce is reduced to about 4 ½ cups, about 30 minutes. About 15 minutes before sauce is done, in a 6- to 8-quart pan over high heat, bring 3 to 4 quarts water to a boil.
• Add pasta, stir to separate, and cook just until barely tender to the bite, about 6 minutes.
• Drain well.
• Add cooked pasta to the crab/tomato sauce pan and stir well.
• Add the fresh crabmeat (if using) and stir gently but thoroughly.
• Bring to a simmer over medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Mound pasta in a wide, shallow serving bowl. Remove the remaining cooked crabs from the oven and arrange on top of the pasta.
• Sprinkle both crabs and pasta with parsley and serve.

Steps:

• Refrigerate crab meat until ready to use.
• Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and saute shallots and garlic in olive oil.
• Add fennel, carrot, leek, and tarragon.
• Cook until vegetables begin to soften.
• Add wine and cook until reduced by a quarter.
• Add cream and butter and add crab meat and cook until heated.
• Boil pasta in salted water and drain.
• Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to add to vegetable and crab mixture, add pasta water to desired consistency.
• Toss vegetable and crab mixture with linguine and add salt and pepper to taste.
• May substitute shrimp for crab.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.
• At the same time, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to the hot oil; cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in imitation crab and heat for 2 minutes.
• Begin cooking rotini. Add to the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.
• While the pasta is cooking, stir half-and-half and parsley into the crab sauce; bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer crab sauce, adding pasta water as necessary, while pasta is finishing.
• Drain pasta.
• Mix Parmesan cheese into crab sauce and heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Serve over pasta.