How to Make Crab Marinara

Making Crab Marinara turned out to be far more adventurous than I expected. Remember the lobster  scene in Annie Hall?





My experience was not far from that.

I asked the fishmonger for 6 crabs and a pound of lump crabmeat, figuring I'd cook the whole crabs in the sauce to infuse flavor, then add lump crabmeat before serving.  He complied, and home I went.   Imagine my shock and horror when I discovered, upon starting to cook, that the crabs were still alive.  Yup.  I opened the bag to dump them in the sizzling garlic and was greeted with snapping pincers and a flurry of legs.

I composed myself, secured a pair of long-handled tongs, and began battle.  I grabbed the first one, but as I attempted to transfer him into the pot, he fought ferociously and with such force that he separated his leg from his body.  I retained hold of the disembodied leg in the tongs, and the rest of the crab fell to the floor and scurried under the table.  I chased him, finally grasping him again, this time by the middle, and tossed him into the pot.  The remaining crabs were less feisty, and I was more prepared.  I managed the rest without incident, lost of limb (mine or the crabs') and resumed cooking.

In the end, this was a spectacular summer feast, and once I got past the fact that I had to kill my dinner, the preparation was quite simple.

Here's the recipe:

Crab Marinara

2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP chopped garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 cups marinara sauce--either make your own or purchase a high quality jarred version
6 live crabs
1 bunch fresh basil (about 10 leaves)
1 lb lump crabmeat, picked over for shells


In large pot, heat oil with garlic, salt, and pepper flakes.  Add sauce, bring to simmer, and add crabs, then basil.  Simmer, covered, over low heat 1-2 hrs until sauce takes on flavor of crabs.  Remove crabs from sauce, add lump crabmeat, heat through and serve over al dente pasta.

NOTES:  For the adventurous, you can leave the crabs in the sauce; some people enjoy eating the meat from the shells.  (I am not one of those people--far too messy and labor intensive).  I personally enjoy this with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, but many purists eschew cheese with fish.  Your call!

Louisiana Seafood Boil

...my Louisiana Boil did not wind up looking like this.  But for good reason

I came across this recipe while looking for inspiration for seafood recipes.  I was leafing through the latest addition to my sizable collection of cookbooks by the British chef Jamie Oliver.  Aptly enough, the cookbook is called Jamie's America.  Jamie's Louisiana Seafood Boil leapt out at me -- it looked so dramatic on the page.

As I started to assemble the ingredients, I realized I'd have to dash to the store to buy a number of the spices, for example, fennel seeds are not normally something I keep to hand.  It was a pretty hefty list, which just went on and on (there were some 25 or so different ingredients), so to simplify matters (aka cheat) I grabbed a tin of Beck's Cajun Devil Dust which seemed to assemble a number of those self-same ingredients.  (I still went to get the fennel seed, however.)

I dutifully bought my crabs, jumbo - heads on - shrimp and thought I'd improvise and throw in a couple of little neck clams.

The ingredients looked great:

I even remembered a trick I'd learned from a Girls' Night Out at the Reading Terminal Market's cooking school, La Cucina, when Chef Bill demonstrated how to cut up corn on the cob effortlessly.  (Worth knowing this...take a heavy knife and cut as far into the cob as you can, then lift the knife and corn off your work surface, keep one hand on the handle and the other on top of the blunt side of the blade and thwack it down on your work surface.  Corn neatly falls into two pieces.  Cool or what?)

The recipe wasn't particularly tricky once you'd cleared the hurdle of your shopping list... 

You throw everything except the fresh seafood into a deep pan and boil fiercely so that the corn and red potatoes cook through.  Then 5 minutes before the end you drop in the seafood and once the seafood turns a pretty pink color then you know it's cooked nicely.

Mine turned out like this.

Doesn't look much like Jamie's does it.  Small problem.  The recipe didn't specify what type of crab to use.  I bought the only fresh crabs that the store had in stock this morning.  Didn't realize until I got home that the fishmonger had sold me SOFT SHELLS. 

There was nothing for it. 

I had to press on.

The end result tasted good...but did not look quite as beautiful as I'd hoped.  I also thought there was too much messing around with ingredients.  I thought this was supposed to be a quick and easy fireside boil.  Well this recipe wasn't.  Fennel seeds and allspice berries.  Harrrrumph.

So, instead of sharing Jamie's recipe, here's a link to a much simpler version shared by the Greater New Orleans Times newspaper.  Far less fuss, this one...