Crab Linguini in White Wine Sauce
with butter lettuce salad
Let the tender, subtly sweet flavor of crab shine in this simple pasta with a white wine cream sauce. A crisp green salad is a perfect complement to serve on the side.
Ingredients
- Shallots - 2 cloves, diced
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Chives - 1 Tbsp, chopped
- Lemons - 1, zest and wedges
- Pasta, gluten-free linguine - 8 oz (sub gluten-free spaghetti or fettucine)
- Oil, olive - 1 Tbsp
- Butter - 2 Tbsp
- White wine - 1/2 cup (look for a dry variety; sub any type of stock)
- Creme fraiche - 1/3 cup
- Crab meat, cooked and picked over - 6 oz (look for jumbo lump or lump)
- Reserved pasta water - 1/4 cup
- Red pepper flakes (opt) - 1/2 tsp
- Black pepper - for serving
- Chives - 2 tsp, chopped
- Cucumbers - 6 oz, chopped
- Lettuce, butter or bibb - 6 cups, torn or chopped
- Vinegar, apple cider - 1 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 1 tsp
- Oil, olive - 2 1/2 Tbsp
Nutrition Facts
Prep
-
Shallots / Garlic - Prep as directed and combine. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
-
Chives (for pasta and salad) / Lemons - Chop chives. Zest lemons and then slice into wedges. Store chives, lemon zest, and lemon wedges separately. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
-
Cucumbers / Lettuce - Prep as directed.
Unlock this meal along with hundreds of smart meal plans and never stress about "What's for dinner?" again
Try for freeLearn More
Make
-
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
-
While water comes to a boil, in a large salad bowl, whisk together vinegar and mustard. Add olive oil (portion for salad) while whisking. Pile cucumbers, lettuce, and chives (portion for salad) on top of dressing. Wait to toss until just before serving.
-
When salted water is boiling, add pasta and cook according to package directions. Near the end of cooking, reserve ¼ cup / 60 mL of pasta water (for 4 servings, adjust if customizing). Drain the pasta.
-
Meanwhile, heat olive oil (portion for linguini) and butter in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat.
-
When butter melts, add shallots and garlic and saute until fragrant, ~2 minutes.
-
Pour white wine over aromatics and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1 minute.
-
Whisk in creme fraiche and simmer until slightly thickened, 3 minutes more.
-
Add pasta, crab, and lemon zest to sauce and toss everything together until pasta is coated in sauce. As you toss the pasta, add in reserved pasta water a little at a time to help the sauce coat the pasta.
-
Taste pasta and season with some salt, if needed.
-
Transfer pasta to a serving platter and top with chives, red pepper flakes (if using), and some fresh black pepper. Serve lemon slices on the side (for squeezing over the top).
-
Toss salad. Enjoy pasta with salad!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
17 reviews
Crab is so expensive now that every supermarket we went to has stopped carrying it. So we subbed shrimp in - and it was delicious! We just seasoned it with salt and pepper and sauteed it in olive oil before cooking the aromatics in the same pan. Love how light the sauce was - this shines with the red pepper flakes and lemon on top. The pasta water helped with thickening the watery sauce, I think. The only con was that the pasta serving was smaller than we’d like - and the salad was pretty forgettable. Garlic bread would be a great side to help flesh out the portion size.
0 HelpfulWe wanted to give this a 3.5. My husband I both felt this was missing something. Pulled crab was very expensive where we live, so we used what the recipe called for, but it prob could have used more. I upped the garlic and shallots and added mushrooms And zucchini to bulk up the dish and add veggies (we skipped the salad). I doubled the wine and creme fraiche. I feel like maybe a richer white wine/vermouth/marsala could have helped deepen the sauce flavor, or we thought shrimp along with the crab? Or garlic bread? Parmesean as others have suggested? We weren’t exactly sure what it needed. This all being said, it was very yummy!! It’s hard when the Cooks Smart standard is so high!
0 HelpfulI used stock instead of wine and yogurt instead of creme fraiche. This combination lead to a curdled disgusting water sauce. do not recommend
0 Helpful