This Nigella recipe is taken from her Channel 4 series Forever Summer, all about easy cooking and laid back recipes that keep you feeling like summer never ends.
You know, I'd eaten this a couple of times and made it myself (throwing in handfuls of peppery watercress as I did so) a few more before I realised it was, give or take, the River Cafe recipe - by which I mean to say that although the amounts and full list of ingredients vary, it is an English seaside version of their fabulous original. I suppose that's how you know something's become a classic: it just seeps its way into the culinary language.
Crab is, I think, hugely underrated - so much better than lobster, and much cheaper. You can use frozen crab meat for this, but it's best to get a fishmonger to cook and pick out the meat for you.
Don't let the fact that a pestle and mortar is indicated put you off: this is fabulously easy to make.
1.Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta.
2.In a large pestle and mortar pulverise the peeled garlic cloves with the salt, so that it makes a smooth paste. Then add the chopped and seeded chilli and crush again until you have a gloriously red-tinged mixture.
3.Tip in the crab meat, breaking it up gently with a fork, and pour in the oil. Zest the lemon into the mortar and then add the juice. Using a fork, beat well to mix, and then you are ready to cook your pasta.
4.So do so, and then drain the pasta and tip into a warmed serving bowl. Immediately pour over the crab sauce and toss the pasta about in it, then throw in the parsley and watercress and toss again.
© Nigella Lawson, Forever Summer - Chatto & Windus, 2002
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