Squid Ink Spaghetti with Crabmeat

Please welcome Victoria from Mission: Food to the LC stage.  Victoria, love that name by the way, blogs out of NYC.  Mission: Food is a great combo of cooking, writing, photography, and restaurant reviews.  She recently posted a fabulous Leek Bread Pudding and Red Lentil Rice Pilaf.  Nice!

Today she shares a smart, creative, and extremely flavorful Squid Ink Spaghetti course.

Victoria is active on Facebook and a very supportive blogger.  So check out Mission: Food, you will be happy you did.

Enjoy...

Guest Post Spotlight

Hello, everyone! My name is Victoria and I write a little blog called Mission: Food. Lately, I've been attempting to strike a balance between sharing original recipes, recipes from cookbooks I love, and reviews of exciting New York City restaurants. It's been very busy, but I've been enjoying the challenge :) When Lazaro asked me to write a guest post, I was extremely flattered, as he is one of the most innovative food bloggers out there, and I knew I would have to pull out the big guns to make a dish worthy of Lazaro Cooks! I also know that we are approaching the New Year, and I decided to share something elegant, but simple, that would be appropriate for serving a small New Year's dinner party, for any last minute party planners out there.


This makes a lot of pasta, and could easily be portioned into smaller appetizer servings if needed. I purchased the dry squid ink spaghetti from a specialty food market, and it had been imported from Italy. It should be available at gourmet markets, Italian markets, and online, but you can always make it from scratch to make this dish extra special! If you absolutely can't find squid ink pasta, you can substitute 1 pound of regular spaghetti, but it won't have the same striking colors. I love the contrast in color between the noodles and the lump crabmeat, so it's worth the extra effort to make it happen. The heavy hand with the lemon juice really brightens up the dish, and the garlic confit is subtle and a nice, somewhat sweet, background note. It takes very little effort to put this dish together, and yet the colors and flavors will definitely impress your guests! Thanks again to Lazaro for having me share a recipe here at Lazaro Cooks! I hope you all enjoy it and will come on over to Mission: Food to check out more!

Squid Ink Spaghetti with Crabmeat

Serves 6

1 lemon
6 cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed
Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
500g (just over 1 lb) squid ink spaghetti, dry or fresh
1 lb lump crabmeat, picked over for shells
1/2 cup white wine (recommended: pinot grigio)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel 1/4 of the lemon and julienne (or thinly slice) the peel. Set aside as a garnish. Then juice the entire lemon and save until needed.

Put the garlic cloves in a very small saucepan and just cover with extra-virgin olive oil. Heat over medium-low to low heat until the garlic is slightly golden and completely tender. Remove the garlic from the oil and smash with a fork. Reserve the oil.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt the water and add the spaghetti. Cook until al dente. Reserve some of the starchy cooking water and then strain the pasta.

Meanwhile, coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with the reserved garlic oil (reserve extra for another use) and heat over medium heat. Add the mashed garlic confit, crabmeat, lemon juice, and white wine. Season generously with sea salt and pepper. Stir gently, as to not break up the crabmeat too much. Cook until the crab is heated through and the flavors are absorbed. Gently toss the crab sauce with the strained spaghetti. Add some starchy cooking water if needed to help nicely coat the pasta. Serve immediately, garnished with julienned lemon zest.

For more please check out Mission: Food.