Spaghetti with Crabs
Submitted by liwewe
Whole hard-shell crabs simmered in a garlicky tomato sauce with red pepper flakes, cracked and tossed over spaghetti. Messy, hands-on, and worth every napkin.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
30 minREADY
45 minThis is the kind of pasta you eat with your sleeves rolled up and a stack of napkins at the ready. Three pounds of live hard-shell crabs get simmered right in a simple tomato sauce seasoned with parsley and red pepper flakes until the shells turn red and the sauce drinks up all that sweet crab flavor.
Then you crack them, chop them coarsely, and toss everything back together with a big pile of spaghetti. The sauce clings to every strand, briny and rich from cooking with the whole crabs.
This is Italian-American Sunday dinner at its most primal. Forget polite eating. Get your hands in there and don’t apologize for the mess.
Chef Tips
- Start with live crabs: Fresh, live crabs give the sauce its signature sweetness. Pre-cooked crab won’t infuse the tomato sauce with the same depth.
- Crack before tossing: Chopping the cooked crabs coarsely means more surface area for the sauce to cling to, and easier eating at the table.
- Salty pasta water matters: Season the cooking water generously. The pasta picks up salt here that balances the sweetness of the crab in the final dish.
- Serve with crusty bread: You’ll want something to soak up every last drop of that crab-infused tomato sauce from the bottom of the bowl.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
Add the parsley, red pepper flakes, crabs and tomato sauce; simmer until the crabs are cooked and the tomato sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
Remove the crabs, crack and chop them coarsely and return them to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper.
Bring a large pot of boiling salted water to a boil.
Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente.
Drain and toss with the crabs and sauce.
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