Bring coastal cheer to a midweek supper with help from our friends at Abel & Cole
You'll know all about wild, foraged foods if you've leafed through the latest edition of The Simple Things. In fact, if you hold your ear close to Abel & Cole’s wild coastal mix, you just might hear the lapping of the waves. This seasonal selection of freshly-foraged greens are the perfect accompaniment to a crab spaghetti, rustled up in double-quick time.
Quick Crab Spaghetti with Wild Sea Vegetables
This supper is like the seaside on a plate, starring a mix of wild foraged sea veg – including samphire, all gathered specially for us – which go swimmingly with sweet Cornish crab, stirred into a buttery pasta sauce with a pinch of chilli heat.
Ingredients
80g wild coastal mix from Abel & Cole
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon
A handful of flat leaf parsley, leaves only
200g spaghetti
45g butter
A pinch or 2 of dried chilli flakes
100g white crab meat
Freshly ground pepper
50g watercress
1 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
Method
1. Put a large pan of water on to boil. Give the sea veg a good wash. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. Finely grate the zest from the lemon. Pick the parsley leaves from their stalk and roughly chop them (discard the stalks or keep them to go in your stockpot).
2. When the water in the pan is boiling, add the sea veg. Simmer for 3 mins, then scoop them out of the water and pop them aside in a colander to cool for a min. (See our tip for what to do with each type of veg, once it’s cool enough to handle.) Set the prepped sea veg to one side.
3. Bring the water back to the boil and add the spaghetti. Simmer for 8 mins till the spaghetti is tender but still with some bite.
4. While the spaghetti simmers, put a deep frying pan on a medium heat for 2 mins, then add the butter and swirl it round the pan till it’s melted. Add the garlic and a pinch or 2 of the chilli flakes (they’re hot, so use as large or little a pinch as you like). Fry, stirring, for 30 secs till the garlic is golden.
5. Flake the crab meat into the pan. Crack in a little black pepper and fry, stirring, for 3 mins. Then add the sea veg and the lemon zest to the pan. Fry, stirring for another 2 mins.
6. The spaghetti should be ready by now. Scoop 1 cup of water out of the pan (mind your fingers). Drain the spaghetti, then add it to the frying pan with the crab. Add around 50ml of the pasta water then toss to mix everything together.
7. Divide the crab spaghetti between 2 warm plates. Serve with handfuls of the watercress on the side, drizzled with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar.