Tagliatelle with Seafood

Tagliatelle with seafood in a light lemon butter sauce.

Fresh pasta is hard to beat. It is easily available in supermarkets and cooks in minutes.

This was a lemon pepper tagliatelle, half a Dungeness crab, a pound of fresh shell on prawns, and a few snails thrown in. It took 10 minutes to put together, tasted delicious, and needed just a glass of wine to accompany it.

The recipe is the most versatile and can be prepared with pantry ingredients. The choice of anything lemon, any flavour of liquor, wine, chilli, will all result in a delightful seafood pasta.

Serves 4

4 nests of  fresh lemon pepper tagliatelle

deep pot of salted boiling water with a tablespoon of olive oil

125 g/4 oz salted butter or garlic butter

olive oil

454 g/ 1 lb deveined prawn with shell

12 snails

454 g/ 1 lb Dungeness crab in the shell in pieces

1 crushed garlic clove

1 teaspoon of fresh green herb of choice

salt and pepper to season

pinch of red chilli flake or alternate

white or rose wine

sherry or brandy

lemon juice or lemon liquor

1 tsp mustard

1/4 cup heavy cream

For the sauce:

Melt the butter and a drop of olive oil. While it is bubbling, add the shrimp and cook them for 5 minutes, turning just once. Remove and place in a dish.

Add the snails and cook for 5 minutes. Shake the pan to keep them moving. Add the crab in pieces, and let it cook for just 2 minutes. Add the garlic and a teaspoon of finely chopped herbs of your choice—tarragon, parsley, coriander, chives would all go well. Add the prawns back to the pan, lightly salting all over. Add a touch of red pepper from your pantry: paprika, chilli flakes, siracha sauce, chipotle, ancho chilli, tabasco, bomba mix; the choice is yours to pick from.

Add a splash of white wine or rose, and a splash of sherry. Add a tablespoon of yuzu lemon liquor, limoncillo, or fresh lemon juice. A teaspoon of mustard. A good glug of cream and let it all come together. Boil it for a minute. Add the ready pasta, one spoonful at a time, mixing it all in. A tablespoon or two of the pasta water will add to the flavour and help the sauce stick to the pasta. Allow the pasta to soak up the sauce. All of this should take a maximum of 5 to 7 minutes, otherwise everything will be overcooked. Serve in 4 pasta bowls with freshly cracked pepper, or Japanese nanami togarashi spice powder, or simply Parmigiano Reggiano.

This cannot be reheated. Buon appetito!

Photo courtesy Niloufer Mavalvala

 

My published cookbooks are available for sale through myself and on Amazon.

The World of Parsi Cooking: Food Across Borders is a 3 award winning book. It has been self published in July 2019 and will be going into its second print in 2022. 

The Vegetarian Parsi, inspired by tradition is an award winning cookbook. It was published by Spenta Multimedia India and is available on Amazon India and through email order at thevegetarianparsi@gmail.com.

The Art of Parsi Cooking; reviving an ancient cuisine was published in 2016 by Austin Macauley and continues to be available through amazon book depot book depository and from the publishers.