Bluestem's Crab, Garlic, Prosciutto, and Chile Pasta

Those of us who were crazy enough to make the commitment to NaBloPoMo this month receive daily motivational e-mails with "daily prompts" or ideas for that day's blog post. Although I already had a plan of action, today's daily prompt coincided quite nicely:

Tell us about your favorite meal, either to eat or to prepare.

Does it just taste great, or does it have other associations?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us FOOD.

I love to eat and cook PASTA. It can be simple, elegant, healthy, rich, light, fattening, creamy, cheesy, or saucy, but it is always comforting to me. I can't tell you how often I crave a simple bowl of pasta with butter and a grating of Parmesan. This amazing pasta, however, is off the chart in elegance, richness, and creaminess. It also has a few calories.

Trofie is the pasta of choice, but I wasn't able to find it on the island. I used Fusillata Casareccia, which is somewhat similar in shape. A few tablespoons of Pernod added to the sauce is optional. I didn't spend $25 for a bottle this time. 

I've had this recipe bookmarked for quite some time, and it really isn't as time consuming as it first appears. It is also more of a dinner party or special occasion dish. Make the herb crumbs the day before and then the main dish comes together in less than an hour right before serving time. The herb crumbs don't even take that long, but do require making clarified butter, allowing the garlic to steep in the butter, removing the leaves from one bunch of Italian parsley, toasting pine nuts, and then pulsing all the ingredients together in the food processor. There will be extra herb crumbs, so plan on using them for additional dishes later in the week - mac and cheese, gratins, pastas, or just about anything savory...

Crab, garlic, prosciutto, and chile pasta

A few of the pasta ingredients...

Crab, Trofie, Garlic, Prosciutto, Chile

Serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 large shallots, diced

1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons Pernod (optional)

1 sprig fresh tarragon

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

14 ounces trofie

6 ounces fresh crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage

1/4 cup finely diced prosciutto

1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

1/4 cup Herb Crumbs (recipe below)

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, fennel, and garlic and cook until the shallots begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the Pernod (if using), wine, and tarragon. Continue cooking until the liquid has been reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and milk and turn the head down to medium-low. Continue to cook until the cream sauce is reduced by half, 10-12 minutes. Strain the cream sauce through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the aromatics. Return the cream sauce to the stove in a small saucepan and bring it back to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the sauce to 1 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large stockpot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender. Drain the pasta well.

Add the pasta, crab, prosciutto, red pepper flakes, and Parmesan to the cream sauce, stirring until the cheese has melted evenly. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Divide the pasta among four bowls. Top each portion with 1 tablespoon of herb crumbs and more grated Parmesan.

Herb Crumbs

2 cups panko (or breadcrumbs)

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Leaves from 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley

1/3 cup Garlic Butter (recipe below)

Make the Garlic Butter first:

Cloves from 1 head garlic, chopped

1 cup clarified butter

In a small saucepan, melt the clarified butter over medium heat. Turn the heat down to low and add the garlic. Let the garlic steep in the butter for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes more. Strain and discard the garlic. Use warm or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Finish the Herb Crumbs:

In a food processor, pulse together the panko, nuts, and parsley until the parsley has become evenly incorporated into the panko. Slowly drizzle in the garlic butter and continue to pulse until the mixture turns to the consistency of damp sand. Transfer the crumbs to an airtight container. Refrigerated, they will keep for up to 1 week.

Garlic, parsley, panko, clarified butter, toasted pine nuts

Herb Crumbs, a very versatile garnish

Pure comfort

***

Bluestem restaurant is one of the most highly acclaimed restaurants in the Midwest. Bluestem: The Cookbook delivers the best of their 125 modern, seasonally-driven recipes with a Midwestern flair to the home cook.

"James Beard-nominated chef Colby Garrelts and his wife, pastry chef Megan Garrelts, worked in notable restaurants in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles before opening Bluestem in Kansas City, Missouri. Written with lawyer-turned-food writer/photographer Lee (the formerly anonymous gourmand behind the Ulterior Epicure blog, ulteriorepicure.com), the Garreltses' debut is a beautiful restaurant cookbook that makes it easy for advanced home cooks to construct an upscale, multicourse menu with wine pairings. Each seasonal section is divided into eight courses featuring elegant, contemporary dishes like Nettle Soup, Whipped Lemon Ricotta; Rack of Venison, Pickled Lady Apples; and White Coffee, Passion Fruit Parfait." --Library Journal

French Fridays with Dorie - Crab, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

Fanciful and confetti-bright...Dorie's words for this week's French Fridays Crab and Grapefruit Salad. It truly is, with bursts of color from sweet red and yellow bell peppers, and spicy green jalapeno, gently tossed with a classic trio of succulent crab, tangy grapefruit and buttery avocado.  The salad is nicely rounded out with cucumber, minced green onion, chives, a drizzle of olive oil, grapefruit juice, and squeeze of lemon.  What a refreshing way to ease into spring!

To serve four, you'll need a pound of jumbo lump crab. I bought a half pound at Whole Foods for the two of us, but it's still quite pricey. John thinks he's allergic to crab, after one bad reaction, but I've convinced him he just had bad crab.  I'm always careful when it comes to seafood, or anything for that matter, to buy a quality product from a trusted store. Grilled shrimp or scallops would also work well if you're not up to splurging on crab.

Dorie highly recommends cutting the grapefruit segments at least a few hours ahead of time to allow them to dry out as much as possible. Although composed of similar ingredients, this isn't ceviche.  The crab should also be drained if necessary and patted dry. I supremed, rather than segmented, the grapefruit. I also used two small pink grapefruits, which gave me about 20 supremes (Dorie uses one Ruby Red grapefruit).

Pink Grapefruit supremes

I used the same quantities of ingredients with my half-pound of crab as Dorie uses for a full pound, to stretch the salad into more of a meal. I also sliced the cucumber and bell peppers into paper-thin slices on the mandolin, as opposed to dicing them...just because I felt like playing with our mandolin we hardly ever use.

Dorie describes this salad as "fanciful and confetti-bright"

If serving the salad as a first course, it presents beautifully in verrines. A verrine is a confection, originally from France, made by layering ingredients in a small glass. You could layer the ingredients (Dorie tosses them all together), or even mold them into a stacked salad. However, after photographing the salad in verrines, I decided to serve it over baby lettuce tossed lightly with grapefruit vinaigrette.  With a hunk of crusty bread and two glasses of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, this made a wonderful dinner.

For our two entree salads, I used: 1/2 pound lump crab, supremes from 2 small pink grapefruits, 1/4 red bell pepper and 1/4 yellow bell pepper (thinly sliced), 1/4 cucumber (thinly sliced), 2 scallions (white and light green portions, diced), 1/4 jalapeno chile (diced), 1 small avocado (cubed, with juice of 1/2 lemon squeezed over), 1 tablespoon minced chives, and about 3 ounces baby lettuce tossed with grapefruit vinaigrette (olive oil, grapefruit juice, salt and pepper).

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

Here are a few similar recipes that sound appealing:

Crab Balls with Grapefruit Salad (Jean-Georges Vongerichten, for Food & Wine)

Crab, Chili and Pink Grapefruit Salad (Jamie Oliver)

Hearts of Palm Salad with Ruby Red Grapefruit and Dungeness Crab (Kerry Simon, Simon Kitchen & Bar, Las Vegas)

Crab Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado and Fresh Herbs (Williams Sonoma)

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (Emeril Lagasse, Food Network)