Crab and Shrimp Pasta

Leftovers ingredients have been a great source of inspiration to me, when it comes to developing recipes. After Christmas Eve, we had a pound of crab and half a pound or more of cooked shrimp, so for Christmas dinner, which I had not preplanned, we sat down to this pasta for a simple meal.

Ingredients:

1lb penne rigate pasta 4T fruity olive oil 1-2T sweet butter 3 anchovy filets 1T Tutto Calabria Hot pepper Sauce     (or 1t hot red pepper flakes) 3 large cloves of garlic chopped parsley 8oz crab meat 1C large cooked shrimp

Directions:

It’s well established that we always have anchovies and Tutto Calabria Hot Pepper Sauce in the pantry and they along with olive oil and butter make a good start for a pasta sauce. But before starting the sauce, get a pot of water boiling and add the pasta, because this sauce takes less time to cook than the pasta will.

After the pasta is on, place the oil, butter, anchovies, and pepper into a large pan over medium heat until the anchovies have disintegrated. Then add the minced garlic and saute it until the fragrance increases. Add the crab and saute until it is warmed.

If this were a perfect world, the  shrimp would have been raw and they would have been added before the crab, but since they were cooked, I added them last so they wouldn’t turn to rubber. After they are heated, add the drained pasta heat together for a minute or two, and then take off the heat to add the chopped parsley. Now plate the pasta and serve. Traditionally I would not serve cheese with this, but a small amount of Romano actually tasted good with this pasta, because it added more salt. Next time I’ll just use more anchovies.