Prawn and Crab Linguine
One of my favourite quick and easy delicious pasta recipes! This Prawn and Crab Linguine is super easy and a real star dish. Spicy, garlicky and full of shellfish flavour. Only 6 key ingredients – prawns, crab meat, cherry tomatoes, shallots, garlic and olive oil. Give this indulgent pasta dish a try – the perfect Friday night dinner!
Quick, easy and of restaurant standard! Love pasta check out my other pasta recipes here.
I love shellfish and this recipe is all about the seafood. I like to use prawns and crab meat but you can use whatever you fancy. Head to your local fish monger and see what they have, whether clams, scallops or lobster this recipe works well with all shellfish. You will be surprised by how reasonable the prices are at a decent fish monger compared to scary supermarket prices!
If you love fish and seafood like me, you will appreciate how hard it can be to find good quality reasonably priced fish. Supermarket fish a lot of the time is not the best quality but the price often does not reflect that. Look around your local area one day and see what you find. I live in North West London and I buy a lot of my fish from a fish monger in Kingsbury. This massively asian area is full of good quality halal butchers and fish mongers, selling both farmed, sea caught and wild fish for amazing prices! You will not regret investigating your local Asian area give it a try and at the moment what else is there to do but explore your local area !
What do i need?
- Shelled prawns – I always have frozen prawns in the freezer for recipe’s like this. I buy mine from Costco they are the Kirkland signature raw tail off (picture).
- Crab meat – Crab can be expensive and hard to find. I buy mine from yep you guessed it Costco! If you spend time on my blog you will hear me banging on about how much I love Costco – seriously sign up! The brand is Chicken of the Sea. I have never seen this brand anywhere else in the UK – let me know in the comments if you have. This brand is often called the best quality tinned crab meat and is perfect for recipes like this or homemade crab cakes – recipe coming soon!
- Garlic and Shallots – This fragrant combo is what is going to compliment your seafood and is all the flavour you need for this simple flavourful dish.
- Chilli – Spice this dish up with some chilli to give it that perfect kick! I use a quarter of a scotch bonnet or my homemade cooking chilli mix.
- Olive oil – Good quality olive oil forms the base of the sauce.
- White wine – Cooking with wine adds intense flavours to food that can’t be replicated. Give it a try!
Tips & Tricks
- I use 4 large garlic cloves, slice 2 of the garlic and mince the other 2. Chop the shallots into small cubes, small pieces will melt into the sauce and distribute better when you combine everything together at the end.
- Using white wine to up the anti of this dish is a great trick. The wine is used here to deglaze the pan and provide a little more liquid to your sauce. Use a dry crisp white wine when cooking, these wines are more acidic which is what you want – try a sauvignon blanc or a pinot grigio. The wine will add acidity and a deeper flavour to your dish. This ingredient is completely optional and the linguine is just as delicious without it. There are many times when I make this dish unprepared and don’t have an open bottle of wine to use and its just as delicious.
- I like to use shelled raw prawns. I always use raw prawns when cooking, don’t be fooled by cooked prawns; they are always more expensive, prawns cook very quickly and when overcooked become rubbery and kind of eww! Fresh or frozen raw prawns allow you the chance to fully control the cook and achieve perfect results.
Serving Suggestions –
Italians do not put cheese on their seafood pasta and I tend to agree, let the seafood be the star! I like to eat this Prawn and Crab Linguine alone or with a nice chilled glass of white wine! It really is a filling knockout dish on its own or try serving with some warm crusty bread to mop up the silky sauce!
Prawn and Crab Linguine
Equipment
- Sharp knife
- Chopping board
- garlic press
- Frying pan
- Pasta pot
- Wooden spoon
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 20 prawns 10 each
- ½ cup crab meat
- 15 cherry tomatoes
- 100 ml dry white wine optional
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 shallot
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp mixed herbs
- 200 g linguine
Instructions
- Rinse and devein prawns if needed. Halve the tomatoes, dice the shallots and set aside. Mince 2 garlic and slice the remaining 2 and set aside. Finely chop the parsley and measure out the seasoning into a small bowl.
- Boil the kettle and turn the heat on your pasta pot. When kettle is boiled add the water to the pan with 1 tsp of salt and a dash of olive oil. Add the linguine and set timer for 10 minutes.
- Now turn the heat to high under your frying pan and add 2 tbsp of olive oil and allow to heat for 2 minutes. Fry the shallots for 1-2 minutes before adding all the garlic mixing frequently to avoid burning.
- Turn down the heat slightly and add the halved tomatoes and chilli if using. Stir once to distribute the ingredients throughout the pan then leave to cook for 2 minutes.
- Now turn heat back to high and add the seasoning and 100 ml of white wine if using. Leave the heat on high and allow the alcohol to cook off – usually about 2-4 minutes.
- Once the alcohol smell has gone and the sauce has reduced slightly turn heat down to medium and add the prawns and leave to cook for 2 minutes before turning over each prawn and adding the crab and covering.
- Leave to cook for further 2 minutes and then uncover, add about 1 serving spoon of pasta water, the chopped parsley and mix well cover and take off the heat.
- When the timer goes off drain the pasta and toss in small knob of butter. Now return the pan back to the heat and add the linguine to the sauce and some more butter because butter is life and combine well with the spatula and tongs.
- Finally, dish the linguine and sprinkle with some more fresh parsley and freshly ground black pepper and serve and enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this Prawn and Crab Linguine?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @chilliandlife on Instagram and hashtag it #chilliandlife #CANDL.
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This was delicious, but I think the recipe could be a little clearer in a couple of places. Firstly, it mentions that wine may be used as an optional extra, but never states a quantity. I used 100ml as that seemed like a bare minimum, but I don’t know if that was too much, too little, or just right. Secondly the recipe instructs you to measure out the seasoning (which I take to mean the salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and mixed herbs) into a small bowl, but never mentions it again. My best guess was to add it after I had sautéed the shallots and garlic, just prior to adding the wine, but again I have no way of knowing from the recipe as written.
As I said, this recipe turned out really well and i will definitely be making it again (hence the 5 star rating), I just wish I knew for certain that I was making it correctly!
Thank you for your comment and rating Callum! Its a simple and delicious recipe – sounds like you nailed it! Thanks for your points, this was one of my first recipes posted to this blog! I have now edited it to make it clearer and accessible to all!
Parsley was such a great addition to this recipe. It gave a zesty taste and beautiful colour to the dish! Excited to try some more pasta dishes (I am a big pasta fan) 😊
One of my absolute faves – I will be sure to posts lots more pasta recipes!