nigella lawson's crab linguine with chilli and lemon.

I wish I could say that I invented this delicious crab linguine recipe but alas it another of the lovely Nigella's. 

With my fave combo ingredients of garlic, lemon, chilli, peppery leaves and of course seafood - I can't get enough of this dish. It's gorgeous as a main meal but any leftovers are amazing the next day served cold as a light lunch. 

Shopping list.
(Serves two)
♥ 120g linguine
♥ 170g white crab meat
♥ Two garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
♥ One red chilli, sliced and deseeded
♥ Half a lemon lemon, juice and zest
♥ Sea salt and pepper
♥ 75ml good quality olive oil
♥ Rocket, to serve

I do get a bit frightened of de-seeding chillis and wash my hands every 3 minutes. but other than that this is such a simple recipe. In short, you boil the pasta whilst putting the rest of the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar, tossing them all together with the crab meat at the end. 

I made it with white crab meat, not with a mixture of white and brown in Nigella's recipe. It is quite expensive at £2-£2.50 for a 170g tin but it's so worth it when you think about how much you might spend on this in a restaurant. I also used a mix of watercress and rocket but ended up using mainly rocket. It's becoming an addiction.

Click to try the crab linguine with chilli and watercress a la Nigella! Or try out my other seafood recipes here...

scallops with white wine, garlic and rocket linguine.

shopping list
♥ around six scallops each
♥ 150g linguine pasta
♥ 100ml olive oil
♥ 2 chopped garlic cloves
♥ 1 tbsp lemon juice
♥ one glass of white wine
♥ 100g rocket leaves

serves two

begin by boiling some water and cooking in a saucepan on a medium heat. 

next, begin to very slowly cook the garlic on a low heat, adding in the lemon juice and glass of wine. (treat yourself to one too!) remove from the heat and set aside.

in a third pan, begin to cook the scallops, for around 2 minutes each side. this is maybe the most tricky part - as i wanted to make sure they were cooked but did not want the rubbery texture. in hindsight, mine may have been over cooked and had i continued to cook them they would have developed nice chargrilled lines. however they turned out to be a soft texture - despite them shrinking a lot!

whilst the scallops are still hot, or just as they are about to be cooked, you then toss the olive oil in the pasta and add in the lemony garlic mixture, along with the rocket leaves. stir it all together and combine as the rocket slightly wilts. serve the scallops on top and voila! :)

although this recipe can be a little awkward with the timings of the scallops and final mixture - it really is a great way of showing off seafood with fresh, simple flavours. yum x