After the annual haggling over pricing, the Dungeness crabs have arrived. Around Sonoma County, we can soon indulge in crab-eating orgies in support of various Rotary, Kiwanis, and Soroptomists. Or, you can grab whole crabs yourself for just $5.59/lb boiled and cleaned at your favorite supermarket. As a Northern California native with deep New England roots, Dungeness crab season has always been my opportunity to demonstrate my ability to wield a nutcracker around a tasty crustacean. Bring your bibs, I can make a mean Ciopinno. I can go pan-Asian and create a ginger and lemon grass-infused coconut milk broth for my succulent & crabby friends. Or, if I really love you, I am more than willing to spend the time cracking and picking to create a mound of shell-less crab meat. Last night, as a welcome home gift to my husband who had just endured three days in Houston, I decided to shell the two crabs. Shelling a lobster starts with the satisfying bounty of big claws and tail, and de-volves into the only-for-expert job of sucking meat out of legs or the daring, but blissful reward of the green tomalley -- the lobster's liver. Shelling a Dungeness crab is a much more consistently rewarding process, provided that you embrace the briny challenge. Not only do the legs and claws offer up tasty chunks, the body itself is a mother lode of easily accessed treats. So, after a delicious lime & bourbon cocktail and 30-40 minutes, I had myself at least 4 cups of pristine crab meat. From here, the possibilities were endless. I could eat the whole bowl myself before Peter came downstairs to check on dinner. I could mix it with some of my home made chile & lime sauce for a Crab Louie. I could make a Ciopinno for the lazy -- essentially a shelled tomato-based crab chowder. What I decided to do was to make a simple pasta dish:
Ingredients:
> 4 cups shelled Dungeness crab
> Linguini, angel hair, or similar pasta
> Zest of one Meyer lemon or a lime, chopped finely
> Juice of one Meyer lemon or a lime
> 1/3 cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc)
> 1/3 cup half & half
> 1-2 tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro
Process:
Boil the pasta
Right after you drain the past while it is still hot, toss all of the ingredients, except for the parsley, together
Toss the parsley or cilantro on top of each serving
The choice for wine was easy. The matching of Chardonnay and Crab is obvious, but I wanted something deeper, richer, and more luxurious to reward my crab-shelling effort. The
2008 Bedarra Reserve Chardonnay, Dry Creek Valley was the perfect match for the dish. It's the wine that reminds me that I can love Chardonnay.
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