By Merilyn Jackson
I use my backyard as a summer kitchen and cook everything out there to keep my house cooler. I like to cook my softshells out on my grill, either in a black spider or my larger 14 inch stainless steel saute pan depending on how many I have. If you have read the recipe for perfect softshells, you can easily ramp up the remaining pan juices into a wonderful sauce for linguine.
Prep extra garlic and parsley chopped with sea salt. After removing crabs from the pan, add extra olive oil, about a half cup for a pound of pasta and a bit of butter if you like. You can also take a couple of more minutes here to throw in some scallops or shrimp to add to the pasta. Toss in the persillade, maybe some jarred sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, shaved fennel, and/or roasted red peppers, anything, in short, you like. Once all your additions are jumping, add a good cup of a pouilly fume or fume blanc to deglaze. Toss in some al dente linguine and cook down for a minute or so until the pasta starch thickens the sauce nicely. Mound on platter and top with the crispy softshells. Sprinkle additional chopped parsley and pepper on top and serve hot.
2 comments
Comment by Steve Weisz on June 21, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Personally I like to panko dust them first for a bit of extra crispy crunch. Dredge each crab first in the flour, shaking to remove any excess, then in the egg wash, and finally in the panko.
Comment by admin on June 21, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Yeah I like Panko too, especially for deep frying. But next time try ditching the egg wash and subbing with the clarified butter before dipping in flour or panko. Much more sensational flavor and it really crisps the actual softshell and it stays crispy longer…Better yet come over and we’ll have a softshell cookoff in the backyard 🙂