By SoPo Seafood's Jacqueline Clark AKA The Briny Babe
Serves 4 diners
Prep Tip: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Simple yet elegant, this Maine Crab Linguine is pure comfort food with an upscale touch – because who wouldn’t love twirling fresh pasta around clumps of sweetly lush Maine crab meat.
Butter, wine, and lemon all easily combine to create a flavorful linguine coating that has just a touch of heat with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. But what takes this meal to the next level is the sprinkling of the gremolata, made up of garlicky bread crumbs lemon, and parsley.
Now there are a lot of ways to get that gorgeously sweet crab meat into your linguine. However, we love using our 8 oz picked crab meat. It comes freshly plucked from the shell so you don’t have to add that task to your cooking agenda for this recipe. We prefer to lightly whisk our crab to retain some of its natural lumps so you get heaping forkfuls of crab with every linguine twirl.
Ingredients: For the Crab Linguine
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 8 oz fresh crab
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 4 TBSP unsalted butter
- ½ cup white wine Chardonnay
- ½ lb linguine
- Kosher salt, to taste
Ingredients: For the Lemon and Garlic Gremolata
- 1 cup sourdough bread crumbs or panko
- 1 TBSP unsalted butter
- 1 TBSP lemon zest from 1 medium lemon
- 1 TBSP parsley, chopped
- ½ clove garlic, minced
Steps: For the Crab Spaghetti
- Prep your pasta. Cook linguine noodles according to the package instructions. Drain and reserve 1 cup of cooking water.
- Build up that garlic, butter, wine base. In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly until fragrant. Add in the white wine, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook for 8 minutes.
- The magic – add in the crab. Add in the Maine crab meat, and cooked linguine, and stir to mix well. Add ½ cup Parmesan and kosher salt; toss. Add ¼ cup of reserved cooking liquid at a time if the pasta needs more liquid.
- Top with the Lemon and Garlic Gremolata and more Parmesan cheese and serve.
Steps: For the Lemon and Garlic Gremolata
- In a medium sauté pan, melt butter over medium high heat.
- Add bread (or panko) crumbs and kosher salt. Stir to combine in butter.
- Toast bread crumbs for about 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful so the crumbs do not burn.
- Remove hot bread crumbs from the heat and add in garlic, parsley, and lemon zest.
- Stir to combine and add to top of crab.
Buy Fresh Maine Crab Meat Online
This recipe was created using SoPo Seafood's fresh wild-caught Maine Crab Meat. Our crab is caught in traps by local fishermen along the Maine Coast. They are then cooked and picked by hand. The hand-picking process produces a quality of crab that is unsurpassed.
