Swimmer Crab Casarecce

Blue Swimmer crabs have a range that extends all the way from the tip of Cape York Penninsula to Adelaide and Melbourne! These brightly coloured crabs are abundant throughout Australian waters and are easy to catch. If you don’t have access to catching your own, they’re quite cheap to buy and readily available.

The meat is soft, white and quite delicate with a beautiful sweetness and light crustaceany flavour. These attributes lend the Blue Swimmer Crab to a variety of different applications, from curries to pasta dishes, or simply cooked and eaten on a buttered piece of white bread.

For this recipe, we’re hitting the Italian road and combining crab and pasta!

This Recipe serves 2 people.

Ingredients:

2 Fresh blue swimmer crabs
150gms Casarecce pasta
150ml Cream
Olive oil
100mls white wine
1/2 White onion, diced
1 Clove of garlic
2 Tbsp Capers
1 Tbsp Vegeta (Lol)
Pinch of Chilli
Chives, Finely diced
Fennel Fronds
-Also Seawater to cook your crabs and pasta in

Method:

Crabs -
To start, we need to boil the crabs
Bring a pot of seawater (Or make your own) to the boil. Pop in your two crabs and boil them for approximately 8 minutes from the point the pot returns to the boil.
Once cooked, cool your crabs in ice water to stop them cooking.
Remove the carapace and pick all the meat from the body and set aside.

Pasta -
Cook your pasta in exactly the same way you cooked your crabs. In seawater - about 8-10 minutes (or until the pasta is al dente)

Sauce -
In a pan, fry your onion, garlic and capers in olive oil until they start to develop colour and smell delicious.
Deglaze with your white wine and reduce the liquid a little.
Add your cream, vegetta and chilli and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for a few minutes until your sauce becomes quite thick.
Add in the crab, freshly chopped chives and fennel fronds, stir, then simply toss the sauce through the pasta and serve.
Garnic with more chives, fennel fronds, chilli and cracked black pepper.