Crab Pasta With Snap Peas and Mint Recipe (2024)

The grocery store only had canned crab, which was expensive and didn't look appealing, so instead I made this tonight with bay scallops. Patted the scallops with paper towels, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then sauteed in olive oil. The scallops released a lot of liquid, which I added into the final sauce before tossing the entire dish together. It tasted great! A delicious combination of fresh flavors. I think shrimp or cubed swordfish would also work well as subs for the crab.

What is Sam Sifton's 'no recipe' scallops?

Canned crab, in addition to being pasteurized, is often Asian "blue swimmer" crab, a totally different species than North American blue crab. The Asian crabmeat is definitely inferior in taste. Skipping it was a good idea.

Made this two ways tonight.
1st was as written but with fresh local dungeness crab and bucatini.
2nd was to make the bucatini and sauce without crab and with chives. And instead of crab put Sam Sifton's 'no recipe' scallops on top of the pasta pile.
Both worked well. Which was better depended on whether the eater prefers dungeness or scallops.

Alas, I made this with canned crab and it turned out like cat food. Now, dear reader, be aware that I'm a terrible cook and it is completely conceivable that I erred in execution. Alas, my husband declared it in the hall of fame of dinner fails, 2 of my kids decided to make scrambled eggs instead, and the one brave child ate three bites then hugged me and said, "maybe don't try that again." For those more talented than I-- avoid canned crab.

Hold the mint.

I've been looking for a recipe like this. I will use Maryland lump crab, fresh linguine and fresh local asparagus, which is in season right now. This would also be good with fresh shelled English peas if you can get them. I would cook the asparagus and the peas like the recipe indicates.

Sifton's No Recipe Scallops are about halfway down the page. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/dining/recipes-from-the-jet-set.html

Hey NY Times chef? Please stop adding mint to everything. This dish DEFINITELY doesn't need mint.

The mint was really delicious in this. Bright and herbacious, it didn't take away from the other flavors and added a whole new flavor to the dish. If you don't like mint, just skip it and maybe up the lemon.

Basil worked really instead of mint. I will definitely add more vegetables next time as well.

Yesterday's holiday picnic was mostly bad food. At 1 AM I made this and was satisfied. My only significant change was fresh (local), self-caught Dungeness crab. I live in Crab Country, so why not? I used almost twice the weight of crab meat and enjoyed it. As Poster "M" notes, nearly any fresh, good quality shellfish can be substituted for the crab, so use what YOU like. Firm white fish might work, but why bother? This is an exceptional pasta dish!

Substituted roasted asparagus for peas and added garlic

If you can get a whole crab and know how to clean it, put the coral (goopy looking stuff in the top of the shell) in the sauce as you sauté the onions and peas. It makes this already great dish that much more wonderful.

I skipped the crab and added some shaved Parmesan. The mint and peas were delicious!

I made this tonight — followed the recipe exactly, using Dungeness crab. I thought it was excellent, except that for me it was too salty. While the directions aren’t explicit about measurements of the salt, they do say to salt the pasta water heavily. Normally this wouldn’t make much difference, but the pasta water is later used in the dish. When I make this next I will go quite a bit lighter on the salt. Maybe, as someone suggested, I will use wine instead of most/all of the pasta water.

This is one of the best things I’ve ever made, and I’m a good cook. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s crab season, so I can buy one inexpensively . When you clean the crab yourself, you can keep the coral, which is the kind of gross looking but delicious yellowish goo under the shell. Put that in with the crab, and it will make this dish even better.

I used scallops instead of crab, worked just fine - using this from the earlier comments - Sifton's No Recipe Scallops are about halfway down the page. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/dining/recipes-from-the-jet-set.htmlI halved the amount of butter and mint and lemon zest and because my scallions were small I added an extra one.This was delicious, my hubby loved it and it will be on repeat!

Less pasta waterUse basil and mintmores scallionsless pasta water.Meyer lemon oil to finish?

Delicious. I upped the nutrient value by doubling the snap peas, adding more herbs (I used a mix of basil and mint), halving the butter, using less pasta and that was whole wheat. I used high quality fresh crab, and as others note wouldn’t attempt this recipe with canned crab. It was spectacular!

Wow-yum! Don't skimp on the butter. Blanch the peas 2 min. in the pasta water before cooking pasta. Use 2X the onions. Melt butter in main pan, turn off heat. Add Aleppo pepper flakes, stir, add crab, onions, mint, lemon zest and let everything "stew" (no heat) while pasta cooks. Mix pasta & pasta water into main pan, toss and heat all. Add lemon juice. Feta crumbled over top before adding mint and olive oil is pretty darn tasty, tomato wedges tucked on the side are nice too and quite pretty.

I made this with fresh crab meat, added an extra lemon for zest and juice, doubled the Chile flakes and it was delicious. The lemon and Chile added great subtle flavors. The pasta and sauce should be fairly dry, not watery. Great recipe.

This is a marvelous pasta dinner! Used left over Oregon crab from a restaurant. Since it was 90 degrees at 9 pm I used parsley instead of the mint growing in my garden. I also added a bit of fresh grated parmigiana and toasted one more time and then added a bit more when served. Eat with a glass of dry white blend wine. Kinda felt like vacation.

This meal was good. I used Crab caught from trawlers in Cornwall. It is good, but it reminded me of whenever we eat out and my wife ends up with a really great meal and I end up with something that comparatively underwhelms. A good meal that I won’t cook again

Oo la la! Did my own riff, which turned out swimmingly. With snap peas and scallions (used just olive oil and no pasta water) added a pint of cherry tomatoes. Used ORZO. At end threw in two handfuls of chopped spinach. Threw in some marinated mozz balls and the oil at the bottom of that container. YOWZA!!

Used fresh Dungeness crab, fresh tagliatelle and frozen peas. Otherwise followed the directions. Lovely and light, and the crab flavor definitely came through. Wish the mint didn’t turn black - next time I’ll add it at the end.

Doubled the snap peas. Halved mint. No scallions so used shallots. Dollop of burrata to finish. Should have been more cautious about the pasta water. Next time.