Shrimp and Crabmeat Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic, and Chili

I love dishes that are quick and easy to make, but deliver on flavor. I am much more likely to prepare them when I don’t feel like spending over an hour cooking dinner. This shrimp and crab spaghetti is light, yet satisfying and can easily be adjusted to suit your palate. I typically make this pasta using only shrimp, but when I feel like splurging a bit, I will use a mix of half shrimp and half crab. The addition of crab is REALLY tasty.

A few tips:

• Use a good quality dry pasta for this dish
• When cooking dry pasta, season the pasta water well, but NOT “salty like the ocean”. Fresh pasta, on the other hand, benefits from very salty water because it absorbs much less water than dry pasta. If you season “like the ocean” when cooking dry pasta, it will be too salty. When cooking dry pasta, taste the water and season it until it has the salinity of a well-seasoned soup.
• If you are draining the pasta using a colander, make sure to save at least 3 cups of the pasta cooking water so you can adjust the consistency of the pasta/sauce. The starchy pasta water helps the sauce emulsify and makes the sauce “creamy”.
• This recipe seems like it is using a lot of olive oil, but trust me, the quantity of olive oil is necessary to give the pasta its texture and flavor. When the olive oil mixes with the tomato juices and the starchy pasta water, it emulsifies and becomes creamy, almost as if you had added butter, but with a fresher, olive-oil flavor. Obviously, you can cut down the amount of olive oil, but this dish really hits its peak when the olive oil does its thing. You could even add more olive oil if you want your pasta extra creamy.
• If the finished dish seems a bit oily before serving, give it a good stir to try and re-emulsify the sauce. If this does not work, there is probably not enough water in the sauce to keep the olive oil emulsified. Add water, 2 tablespoons at a time while stirring, until the sauce re-emulsifies and becomes creamy.
• I much prefer to use chopped shrimp instead of whole shrimp. I find whole shrimp to be quite clumsy when paired with a long noodle such as spaghetti. I also like cooking the shrimp at the beginning along with the garlic and chili, almost as if it were a shrimp sausage. Yes, the shrimp is technically overcooked when the dish is finished cooking, but then the shrimp are chopped up like this, the texture does not suffer, it may even improve.

This makes a great one-dish dinner but you could always add:

• English Pea Crostini with Ricotta, Mint, and Prosciutto
• Simple Chicken Liver Mousse
• Grilled Romaine with Bagna Cauda
• Salt Cod Brandade
• Grilled Calamari and White Bean Salad
• Grilled and Stewed Romano Beans with Garlic, Tomato, and Basil

Shrimp and Crabmeat Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic, and Chili

Ian Benites

A delicious seafood pasta that can be made in under 40 minutes.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Servings 4

Equipment

• Two, 6-8 quart pots (one for boiling pasta, one for making the sauce)

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound good-quaility dry spaghetti (or linguine)
• 5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, for starting the sauce
• 10 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, for finishing the sauce
• 1/2 cup coarsley sliced garlic (lightly smash the cloves and slice 1/8 inch thick)
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flake (use less if the pepper flakes are extremely spicy)
• 8 oz peeled and deveined shrimp (see note)
• 5 cups halved cherry tomatoes
• 8 oz fresh blue crab meat (can also use pasteurized crabmeat if necessary)
• 4-5 thai bird chilies (optional, add for more bright, fresh chili flavor)
• 2/3 cup chiffonade basil leaves (1/4 inch wide chiffonade)

Instructions

 

• You will need two, 6-8 quarts pots to make this pasta. One is for boiling the pasta and the other is for making the sauce and finishing the dish. Use the heavier of the two pots to make the sauce as it will reduce chance of scorching.
• If you would like, you can devein the shrimp. I usually never devein them for this dish and I have never had an issue with any off-flavors or textures.
  
• Chop the shrimp until you have achieved the texture of coarsely ground beef. Set shrimp aside.
  
• If you are using bird chilis, slice them finely into rings. Set aside
  
• Make sure you have all of your ingredients cut and measured before starting to cook!
• Bring about 4 quarts of water to a boil and season with salt until the water has the salinity of a well seasoned soup. Do not season it as salty as the ocean.
  
• While the water is coming to a boil, place 5 Tbsp of olive oil and 1 Tbsp of crushed red pepper flake in the other pot (the heavier of the two pots). Turn the heat on to medium-high.
  
• Carefully watch the chili flakes as the oil heats up. when the chili flakes begin to darken and you start to smell a toasty chili aroma, add the 1/2 cup sliced garlic.
  
• Cook the garlic over medium-high heat while stirring and when the garlic start to get brown and toasty, add the chopped shrimp.
  
• Break up the shrimp with a spoon and season it with a big pinch of salt as it cooks. Keep cooking and stirring until the shrimp is no longer translucent and its is all broken up.
  
• When the shrimp has just cooked through, add the 5 cups of halved cherry tomatoes, season them with salt, stir, and allow to cook over medium-high heat.
  
• After you add the tomatoes to the pot, add the spaghetti to the boiling water. Make sure you stir the pasta for the first 2 or 3 minutes to keep the pasta from clumping. Please note that you will be intentionally undercooking the pasta and finishing the cooking process in the other pot along with the sauce.
  
• While the pasta is boiling, keep the cherry tomato sauce simmering over medium high heat until the tomatoes start to break down and release their juices. Once you see that the tomatoes have softened and there is a good amount of tomato juice in the bottom of the pot, turn off the heat while you wait for the pasta to finish boiling, The tomatoes will take anywhere between 3-10 minutes to break down, depoending on how ripe they were.
  
• When the spaghetti has reached a doneness that is slightly under al dente (about 1 minute before reaching al dente), use a pair of tongs or a strainer to transfer the spagetti from the pot of water to the pot with the tomato sauce. It's OK if some of the pasta water gets transferred along with the spaghetti. (Do not discard the pasta cooking water! If you are draining the pasta using a colander, make sure to reserve at least 3 cups of the pasta water)
  
• After adding the pasta to the tomato sauce, add the crabmeat, 10 Tbsp olive oil, the sliced thai chili, and 1 cup of pasta water.
  
• Turn the heat on to high heat and use a pair of tongs to stir everything together as the sauce comes back to a simmer.
  
• Initially, the sauce at the bottom of the pot may appear a touch watery. Allow the sauce to cook while stirring the pasta until the sauce has thickened and achieved a slightly "creamy" apearance. The pasta should only cook for about a minute or two once the sauce comes back to a simmer.
  
• Adjust the consistency of the pasta by adding as much pasta water as necessary. If pasta seems dry and stodgy, do not be afraid to add up to 1-2 additional cups of pasta water so that the sauce is creamy without becoming overly watery. Stir in the basil leaves and season with additonal salt if necessary.
  
• If the finished dish seems a bit oily before serving, give it a good stir to try and re-emulsify the sauce. If this does not work, there is probably not enough water in the sauce to keep the olive oil emulsified. Add water, 2 tablespoons at a time while stirring, until the sauce re-emulsifies and becomes creamy. You can serve the spaghetti with a wedge of lemon, some garlicky breadcrumbs, or even some freshly microplaned pamesan cheese if you like (that whole "no cheese with seafood" thing is BS), although none of these are neceassary.
  

Notes

If you are making this dish with only shrimp or only crabmeat, use 16 oz of that protein.