Pasta with Crab and Sherry Cream Sauce

I love food! I love anything to do with food. Food games, food movies, and recently I discovered a Korean drama called Pasta!! I knew I had to watch it!! It was so cute. As all Korean dramas go, there's a love triangle and I'm pretty sure someone always has cancer. This one wasn't sad though, it was very sweet and lots of footage of chefs preparing pasta (bonus for me!!). I'm telling you this because I finally learned how to properly plate pasta from watching this drama!! You're supposed to take some pasta with your tongs, and have your tongs perpendicular to your plate and twirl your tongs to release the pasta. It creates this cute little cocoon of pasta! so pretty!! Watch it!!

On to this dish, my sister gave me this recipe, but it originally came from the 30 Minute Suppers Special from America's Test Kitchen.  How can I describe this dish? Yum!!! That's really all I need to say about this. It comes together in the time that it takes for your pasta to cook!! It's perfect for a weeknight dinner. My only advice is buy good crab meat!! It's the star of the dish, it really shouldn't be the fake stuff!


Linguine with Crab & Sherry Cream Sauce adapted from America's Test Kitchen's 30 Minute Suppers Special Serves 4  2 tbsp unsalted butter 2 shallots, minced 2 tbsp tomato paste 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (see note) 1/2 cup dry sherry 1 cup heavy cream 2 tsp grated zest and 1 tbsp juice from 1 lemon salt and pepper 1 pound linguine 1 pound lump crab meat parsley (see note) 

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Melt butter in large skillet over med-high heat. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 2 mins. Add tomoto paste and red pepper flakes and cook until slightly darkened, about 2 mins. Stir in sherry and simmer until thickened, about 2 mins. Add heavy cream and cook until thickened, about 3 mins. Off heat, add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

2. Menawhile, add 1 tbsp salt and pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, drain pasta and return to pot. Add sauce, crab meat, and zest and toss to combine, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Notes:

• *Original recipe calls for 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes.  I wanted a little bit more kick so I used 1/2 tsp. 
• *Original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of chives.  I only used about 1 tbsp of chopped Italian parsley as decoration.