Pasta with Crab and Chiles

I stole this one from Mark Bittman (the last time I’ll admit to doing that). Don’t even think about doing this unless you have very fresh crab. Spaghetti is a good choice of pasta.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TBS dried chile flakes
• 1 pound pasta
• ½ pound crab meat (or more)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put oil, garlic, chilies and a pinch of salt in a saucepan large enough to hold cooked pasta and turn heat to medium-low. Cook, shaking pan, until garlic just begins to color; turn off heat.

When water boils, cook pasta. When it is just about done, turn heat under oil back to low and add crab; gently stir once or twice. Don’t be too zealous about stirring; you want it to be warmed through and for the olive oil to penetrate the clumps, but you should keep the lumps in tact as much as possible. Drain pasta (reserve a bit of cooking water), and toss it in crab sauce to coat. If mixture seems a bit dry, add reserved cooking water or more olive oil. Stir in parsley, adjust seasoning, and serve.

No cheese with this one.