Crab Pasta

With the start of the academic year quickly approaching, this highly productive period of blogs will likely slow down. I still hope to keep it up as much as I can, and make 2020 the biggest year in the history of No Free Lunch. I am especially glad to feature today's dish, which has been a staple in our house for the last few years. I've been making what we simply call "crab pasta" for a while, but held off on posting a recipe because it's something I generally make by feel with no measuring. Previous attempts to codify it resulted in me overthinking it and producing a substandard result. After a few tries, I've finally dialed it in. Crab pasta is a quick and easy meal that can easily slot in as a weeknight dinner. All the ingredients hold up well in the refrigerator or pantry, so it's also good food for our strange times.

Crab pasta is entirely my own invention, but it was loosely inspired by the classic Neapolitan dish pasta aglio e olio. This is a simple pasta consisting of spaghetti in a sauce made with garlic, olive oil, and the starchy water from the pasta. It was famously featured in the 2014 film Chef, which I heartily recommend for anyone interested in cooking. In Italy, many traditional pasta dishes are meatless, intended to be served separately to a meat course. For me, at home, I usually only want to make one thing, so I added imitation crab to the mix to have the pasta stand on its own as a main dish.

Imitation crab (also known as "krab") is a highly underrated ingredient, and is used in another one of my favorites, crab salad. This pasta also works fine with shrimp and would probably work with real crab, as well, though I haven't tried that myself. You could get away without the fresh herbs, but I think they are important for the color contrast and adding another flavor dimension. Chives are a great choice, as are Chinese chives, if you can get them. Since our Italian parsley plants are thriving, while our chives aren't (possibly due to being covered up by a huge squash plant), I used that this time. This recipe is designed to use a full box (1 lb.) of pasta, and makes enough for us to have dinner and then lunch the next day with the leftovers. This does require quite a large pan to make, but it's easily scaled down to use half a box, if desired.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. imitation crab
• 1 lb. dry pasta
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• Fresh herbs (chives, Chinese chives, or parsley), chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh lemon juice to taste (from 1/2 lemon)

Instructions

Roughly chop the crab and break it up with hands. How much to break it up is personal preference. Fill a saucepan with water, lightly salt, and bring to a boil. Cook the pasta a minute under box instructions. Use just enough water to cover the pasta. I poured a little out after I added the pasta.

While the pasta cooks, heat half the olive oil (1/3 cup) in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the crab and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking a few more minutes. 

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking water. Add the pasta to the crab mixture and stir to combine. Add the pasta water and the remaining 1/3 cup of olive oil. Toss to mix everything together. Reduce the heat to low and season to taste with salt, black pepper (I add quite a bit), and lemon juice. Garnish each portion with fresh chopped herbs and grated cheese, if desired.