(Slightly Posh) Wednesday Wind-down: Crab Linguine

A couple of weeks ago, my subconscious mind started shouting that it wanted to try Crab Linguine, and kept at it until I found some tinned crab.  I used to see it everywhere, but couldn’t find it in Tesco or Dunnes or even middle-class paradise Fallon & Byrnes.  I finally managed to find some in M&S.  Before anyone starts shouting about this not really being a cheap eat, the tins of crab are only €4, and were on a ‘buy one, get second half-price’ special offer when I went in.  The other ingredients only cost a euro or two at most, so you can make this delicious meal for two people for about a fiver, in about ten minutes.  The M&S tinned crab is excellent – big chunks of tender white crab meat.  I used it to make Nigella Lawson’s version of the classic Italian dish Crab Linguine, from her book Forever Summer.  And of course if you’re feeling flush, you can always get fresh crab.

Ingredients

Serves two:

• 1 tin crab meat
• 1 red chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Linguine or spaghetti
• Black pepper

Instructions

Put the pasta on to boil. While it’s boiling, crush the two garlic cloves and sea salt together with a pestle and mortar.  Add in the chilli (deseed it if you don’t like it too hot) and the juice and some zest of the lemon.  Then add in the crab meat and mix it all together with a fork.  When the pasta is done, drain it and toss it with the crab mixture. Grate over some black pepper.  Nigella Lawson adds watercress to her version. I didn’t have any, but added in some basil from the plant that I have miraculously managed to keep alive for weeks now, and it was really good.  Serve with white wine.