Chef Thomas Marchi, from Filini Restaurant at Radisson Blu Abu Dhabi, Yas Island has provided a delicious recipe for spaghetti con polpa di granchio, pomodorini e crema leggera al Basilico. For all of you who aren’t fluent in Italian, that’s spaghetti with crab meat, chopped tomato and a light basil cream sauce.
Ingredients:
- Pasta dough
- 500g flour
- One egg (white and yolk)
- One egg white
- 50g extra virgin oil and 35g salt
- 180ml warm water
Sauce
- 50g crab meat
- 40g cherry tomato
- 35ml extra virgin olive oil
- One garlic clove
- 70ml cooking cream
- Salt and white pepper to season
- 15g fresh basil
- 5g chopped parsley
Method
- To make fresh pasta at home, mix all the ingredients for pasta dough in the mixing machine and let it work for 10 minutes.
- Work the dough with the pasta machine and make spaghetti thin and long. Leave the pasta to become dry for 30-40 minutes at room temperature, without covering.
- Shop bought spaghetti will work just as well for this recipe.
- Blend the cream and half of the basil with parsley, salt, pepper and a drop of olive oil.
- Toss the garlic clove in a pan with olive oil. When golden brown remove and add the crab meat, cook for two to three minutes. Cut the cherry tomatoes into four and add. If needed add some vegetable broth or water. Add the cream and cook for four to five minutes.
- At the same time boil the spaghetti in hot, salty water for five minutes.
- Strain the pasta from the water and add to the sauce, cook together for couple of minutes. Serves four.
Check out our very own Tried and Tested review of this recipe below.
Tried and Tested
Chef Thomas Marchi, head chef of the Filini Bar and Restaurant at the Radisson Blu Abu Dhabi, Yas Island has provided a delicious recipe for Spaghetti con polpa di granchio, pomodorini e crema leggera al Basilico. For all of you who aren't fluent in Italian, that's Spaghetti with crab meat, chopped tomato and a light basil cream sauce.
In an effort to sharpen some questionable cooking skills we've decided to actually try out the recipes featured for some honest feedback.
The chef also provided a recipe for homemade pasta, which while sounding delicious, was a bit too time consuming for the quick dinner we had planned. Using store bought pasta, we focused on making the basil cream sauce which was incredibly easy to make and took almost no time at all. After infusing some extra virgin olive oil with a clove of garlic, we added the crab meat and tomatoes to the pan. After sautéing for a few minutes we added the basil cream sauce and heated through. Once everything was bubbling we added the pasta to coat through.
The only downfall perhaps was that the sauce wasn't as much as we'd hope, since we're fans of spaghetti swimming in sauce, we did end up adding some more cream to coat the spaghetti more fully.
The real test however was when we ventured a taste. The pasta was light, fresh and surprisingly filling. The fresh herbs and tomatoes really won us over in this simple dish. Our guest, notorious for his aversion to cream sauces, actually asked for seconds! And with a recipe this quick and easy to make, we'll be sure to add this to our repertoire.
We give it four out of five spoons!
