Day 90: sweet seaside brininess

As easy as it would be for me to jabber on endlessly for the next ten paragraphs about my love of shellfish, alas, I shall refrain. In fact, I will keep this one extra short just because I’m struggling for time today. As always: do not let said short time commitment on this piece be a reflection of my love of it, because, quite frankly, Nigella’s Linguine with Chilli, Crab and Watercress falls - without questionable doubt - into my Top 5 Favourites (So Far) of 365 Days of Nigella.

Crab and mussels are my all-time favourite shellfish; they have a wonderful, sweet brininess that I find positively addictive. And prawns hold a similar appeal!

Nigella’s Linguine with Chilli, Crab and Watercress

I reduced the amount of spaghetti I used, but just enough to still generously feed two greedy people, and I used about 250g of crab meat (so close to the original amount in the recipe). I had just shy of 300g, but some of it found its way onto a buttered, toasted (still hot) slice of Nigella’s Old-Fashioned Sandwich Loaf, with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a good grinding of mixed peppercorns. Divine! And one of my favourite ways to enjoy fresh (and indeed, tinned) crab.

I don’t have a pestle and mortar - I used to have a Molcajete, but I have no idea where that is - so instead I gave everything that needed it a few short, sharp blitzes with a stick blender (not so much that it became soup). Everything else is of course pretty straight forward!

Flavour musings

The addictively sweet and briny coastal aura about this pasta transported me with each mouthful to the English seaside and the sound of breaking waves on sun-glistened shores. This linguine with crab is truly celestial.

I told you this would be short. Although, I think this might be the first time I’ve actually followed through and stuck to my word.