These flavours take me back to my childhood, when my mother used to make a stuffed crab that I loved. She would take the meat out, boil the shell, stuff the meat back in, top it with cheese and bake it. Mine is a more refined version: I have loosely borrowed her recipe to make a pasta with similar flavours, and added a touch of Indianness with the baby shrimp pickle.
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Serves
4
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Cook Time
01 h 00 m
Plus 7 hours the previous day to make and rest pasta
Ingredients
For Saffron Pasta Dough
- 250 gm refined flour
- 10 gm semolina
- 2 gm salt
- 1 gm saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp water
- 10 ml olive oil
- 2 large eggs
For Crab Stuffing
- 200 gm shelled crab meat
- 25 gm celery, finely chopped
- 30 gm carrots, finely grated
- 15 gm butter
- 10 gm thyme, chopped
- 10 gm garlic, chopped
- 5 gm parsley, chopped
- 15 ml olive oil
- 10 ml lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
For Chilli Shrimp & Crab Claws
- 4 crab claws, cracked
- 50 gm baby shrimp
- 10 gm tomato paste
- 5 gm parsley, chopped
- 5 gm cumin powder
- 5 gm chilli powder
- 5 gm garlic, finely chopped
- 25 ml white balsamic vinegar
- 10 ml olive oil
- Salt and pepper
For Bell Peppers
- 200 gm red bell pepper
- 50 gm red onion
- 50 gm tomato
- 20 gm garlic
- 5 gm sage
- 5 gm tarragon
- 5 gm oregano
- 30 ml olive oil
- Salt and pepper
For Bell Pepper Cream Sauce
- 80 gm red bell pepper, roasted and puréed
- 15 gm parmesan cheese, grated
- 15 gm butter
- 10 gm parsley, chopped
- 5 gm red onion, diced
- 5 gm garlic, chopped and roasted brown
- 5 gm thyme, chopped
- 200 ml heavy cream
- 100 ml vegetable stock
- 50 ml white wine
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
For Making Pasta Dough
- Mix flour, semolina, salt and olive oil in a bowl with both hands, using your fingertips lightly. Mound up the flour, making a well in the centre.
- In another bowl, break two eggs, add in saffron and whisk well.
- Toss the beaten egg into flour well and add saffron.
- Slowly combine all the ingredients together, kneading them into a dough. It should be firm and pliable, with a slight springiness to the touch. You can add a few drops of water and continue to knead if dough is too dry.
- Wrap it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
For Crab Stuffing
- Sauté all ingredients – except crab meat and lemon juice – in a pan on medium heat, till they soften and are well combined.
- Remove from pan and set aside in a nonreactive bowl to cool.
- Once cool, add in crab meat and lemon juice, mix well, and refrigerate before using for pasta stuffing.
For Crab Ravioli
- With a pasta roller, roll out pasta dough into sheets 1 mm thick and approximately 60 cm (2 feet) long.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon-sized dollop of crab stuffing and repeat, creating two rows, down half the length of the sheet, evenly spaced from each other and the sheet edges.
- You should ideally fit 10 balls of filling in two rows of five each down half the pasta sheet.
- Next, carefully fold the uncovered half of pasta sheet over and onto the crab filling side to cover the mounds. Push down around the filling with your fingers to seal.
- Use a fluted (or plain) dough cutter to cut squares around the filling. The squares should be about 1-2 cm greater than the size of the mounds of filling.
- Trim away excess dough from the sheet to be reused for making more sheets.
- Transfer crab raviolis to a tray dusted with semolina or flour and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate till ready to cook.
- When ready to cook, boil a large pot of lightly salted water and cook for 2-3 minutes or till they start to float up. Remove, drain and toss in olive oil.
For Chili Shrimp & Crab Claws
- In a pan, sauté garlic, herbs and spices in olive oil on high heat till garlic starts browning.
- Add in unpeeled baby shrimp and cracked crab claws with tomato paste and sauté some more, agitating the pan contents constantly to prevent burning or sticking.
- After a couple of minutes, add in white balsamic vinegar and sauté till the vinegar evaporates. Adjust seasoning and set aside to cool.
For Bell Pepper Cream Sauce
- Combine all ingredients, making sure to cover the peppers, tomatoes and onions thoroughly with the olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper.
- Put them all on a foil-covered tray and roast in the oven at 180℃/350℉ for about 30 minutes till the skins of the tomatoes and peppers char and blister.
- Remove from the oven and let cool. Peel off the skin and discard the seeds, but save whatever pan juices remain. Put everything in a blender and purée to a smooth paste. Set aside.
- Sauté onion and garlic in butter in a pan on medium heat, till they turn translucent.
- Pour in white wine and then the roasted bell pepper paste, and cook till the wine evaporates.
- Next pour in the vegetable stock, lower the heat and simmer. Spoon in the cream and continue to cook, reducing it further.
- Finish with grated Parmesan cheese and herbs.
To Serve
- While you’re finishing red bell pepper sauce, cook the ravioli in a pot of slow-boiling salted water. They will float to the top when done. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from water and drain. Gently toss the ravioli in red pepper cream sauce.
- Finish with chopped parsley and a spoonful of chilli prawn and crab claw.
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