Fra Diavolo crab pasta.
So we're gonna start by heating up olive oil and butter,
a couple tablespoons of each, in a large,
the biggest one you have, a big skillet.
Now see what's happened here is the butter's melted
but it's not browning.
It's just bubbling together.
So now we're going to take one rib of celery,
one giant or two medium shallots,
into that beautiful melting of butter and olive oil.
Yum.
And we're gonna throw in a bay leaf,
and a little salt.
We're just gonna let this mixture
of celery and onion and bay cook out a bit first
so we don't scorch the garlic.
So we're choosing crab tonight,
and it's one ounce to one ounce for me.
So if I'm using 12 ounces of pasta,
I want 12 ounces of crab.
If I'm using eight ounces of pasta,
I want eight ounces of crab.
So on and so forth.
You can use lump crab or I use crab legs.
And any seafood I'm gonna drop into this,
I squish half a lemon over,
and I add a little sprinkle of Old Bay seafood seasoning.
And for me, I add a touch a fennel pollen.
I love fennel on this dish.
Just a hint of it though.
So this is bubbling away.
So now I can stir in the garlic,
and I'm not worried about that at all.
That won't burn, not at all.
And now we're gonna add some Calabrian chili paste,
a big fat round spoonful,
or a teaspoon of flake, up to you guys,
and give that a nice stir.
So now we're going to add
about a half a cup of our vermouth and let that cook out.
Okay, so now to our beautiful mush, we're gonna add
a 14 ounce can of cherry tomato, Italian, San Marzano's.
And then I thin it out a little.
If you use cherry tomatoes though
you gotta break 'em up a little bit.
That's why I'm hitting them with a paddle here.
And then we're going to add a little passata.
What is passata?
Passata is fresh pureed tomatoes
Literally fresh pureed tomatoes.
They're not cooked.
That's the difference between passata and tomato puree.
So we heavily salt the water and drop our pasta.
Okay, so now we're gonna lift out our bay leaf.
Just before we drain, we're gonna add
a little of that starchy cooking liquid
and save a little more just in case
to marry the pasta to the sauce.
And of course, we're gonna add our crab, yum.
Just let that heat through, delightful.
And we're gonna add about half of our herbs.
Eh maybe two thirds, and we'll save some for right on top.
I'm gonna do something weird.
You're gonna think I'm crazy.
I love to serve right from the pan
but I think it'll be faster and easier
to toss it in the big pot.
So I'm gonna go back and forth.
And that's just me, my house, my rules.
I want to use the pan to serve from.
It's pretty, it looks great on the table.
So I'm gonna turn that off.
Both pans are off now.
And I'm gonna take my spatulas
and do that carry over cooking we were talking about,
and just mix it all together,
nice and easy, in the big, deep pot.
Back into the pretty pan for service,
then we go to the table.
That's when you hit it with the extra
of all of those beautiful, fresh herbs and the celery tops.
And then I didn't tell you this,
my secret secret ingredient to any Fra Diavolo
is to sprinkle over
chopped, hot, pickled, cherry pepper rings.
What, it's crazy.