I love crab.  L O V E it!  I get completely overly excited when I see the signs for fresh crab at my local fish stand.

Fresh, sweet and delicate, it requires only the lightest of touches to turn it into something stunning. Less is more as far as crab is concerned.

This clean and light pasta dish serves 2 hungry adults.  Prep everything first and put together with quickly ready to eat immediately.

Here's a insider tip from my fishmonger.  If you buy your crab and it comes in a paper wrapper, remove that wrapper as soon as you get home.  Put the crab in the fridge under a plate and it will keep for a few days. 

I know Italians the world over will weep with despair, but I like it with a bit of parmesan on this dish! Don't tell them. Italy has given the world so much, I don't want to upset them unnecessarily.

Ingredients

• 2 fresh dressed crabs
• 1/3 packet fresh linguine (enough for 2 adults)
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 small handful parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 medium sized fresh chile, deseeded and cut into shards
• 1 medium shallot, finely diced
• 1 cup white wine
• Sea salt
• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Method

1. Put your pasta water on heat. Add a handful of grain salt. Bring to a rolling boil.
2. Meanwhile, separate the white meat from the brown.  
3. Put the brown meat and any crab eggs in a bowl and mash together with the lemon juice.  The back of a teaspoon is great for doing this.  This mixture is the backbone of the flavour for your dish - don't be scared of using everything.
4. Prepare your parsley and chile and lemon zest.  
5. In a frying pan cook through your finely diced shallots in the white wine.  This burns off the alcohol from the wine and softens the shallots - be gentle.
6. Put your pasta on to cook until al dente.
7. Once your wine and shallot mixture is ready, add in the brown meat and lemon juice mixture.   
8. Add the lemon zest, chile and chopped parsley; season with sea salt.
9. Roughly drain your pasta.  I usually use tongs and add the pasta straight into the pan with your sauce.  A bit of the pasta water adds necessary extra liquid.
10. Quickly stir in the white crab meat - it's already cooked so to maximise the flavour just let it pick up a little heat from the pasta.  Don't be rough - you want to maintain as many lumps of white crab meat as possible.
11. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a few more flakes of sea salt.
12. Serve and eat immediately.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 5-6 minutes