Spaghetti with Crab Sauce

By PineyCook

Ingredients

• 1 lb crab or lobster shells
• 1/2 cup chopped fennel bulb
• 3 chopped shallots
• 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
• 1 T. finely chopped parsley
• 1 28-32 oz. can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
• 3 T. olive oil
• 1 cup crab or lobster meat
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fennel bulb
• 3 finely chopped shallots
• 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
• 1 T. finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 t. cayenne powder
• 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 cup ouzo
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 lb long pasta such as spaghetti or linguini

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

Make the initial sauce. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When it's hot, about 2-3 minutes, saute the shallots and fennel for 3-5 minutes, until they start to color.

When the shallots and fennel colors, add the garlic and the crab shells and stir to combine. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Crush the shells as they cook -- they will soften.

Add the parsley and the tomatoes, stir and bring to a boil. When it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes. Add water if the sauce gets too thick.

Set a large pot of salty water to a boil for your pasta.

After the initial sauce has cooked, turn off the heat and pick out all the pieces of shell you can find. Then run it through a food mill set on the finest setting. If you do not have a food mill, pick out even more of the shell, then push it all through a colander or a medium-meshed sieve.

Taste the sauce. It may need salt. It might be gritty from bits of shell. If it is, run the sauce through a finer mesh sieve.

Make the final sauce. In a new pot, heat the olive oil as you did before and cook the new set of shallots and fennel for 3 minutes, stirring often. you don't want them to turn brown.

Add the garlic, cayenne, tomato paste and ouzo and stir well to combine. Turn up the heat to high and cook this vigorously for a minute or two, then add the initial tomato sauce.

Cook this new sauce for 15 minutes while you cook the pasta. Right before the pasta is done, add the crabmeat and the parsley.

Toss the sauce with the pasta to combine and serve immediately. I like an Italian red with this dish, such as a Montepulciano or a Sangiovese.