Crab Linguine is an easy restaurant style and authentic Italian recipe you can create at home. Quick to make, you just need 7 ingredients and less than 30 minutes.
Venice is the home of many wonderful pasta dishes. Italian food at it’s core is simple cooking with big flavours and this crab linguine is exactly that. I discovered this dish while on a dream holiday and now I bring it to you.
Table of contents
What is crab linguine?
Crab linguine is a traditional Venetian dish comprised largely of linguine and chunks of crab meat. With just a few good quality ingredients, it’s bursting with flavour and very easy to make at home.
Ingredients
The wonderful thing about this recipe and, for that matter, many Italian recipes, is the simplicity and small number of ingredients.
Like many Italian dishes, crab linguine is a combination of very simple ingredients – fresh crab meat, olive oil, garlic, white wine, tomatoes, seasoning and pasta. This version also uses just a touch of cream to help that lovely sauce cling to the strands of linguine.
See substitutions below.
What to serve with crab linguine?
This is a complete meal on its own, however, you could serve it up with a side of crusty bread to soak up any of that lovely leftover sauce, or maybe some garlic bread to start.
How to make it – step by step
This simple crab linguine is quick to make. To keep it super simple, I usually just buy pre-cooked crabs to save on a little time and just pick the meat myself. That takes about 20 minutes and the whole dish only takes 10 to cook it from then on. King crab claws also work really well.
- You start by sauteeing garlic in some olive oil just over low heat, then add some white wine and simmer that over high heat until it’s almost all evaporated.
- The next step is to add the cherry tomatoes and saute for just a couple of minutes (photo 1), before adding seasoning (photo 2).
- Start creating the sauce by adding 1/2 cup of the pasta water (photo 3). It’s important to use the pasta water as the starch in that water will help the sauce to cling to the pasta better.
- Now add a touch of cream (photo 4). This step is optional and not in the original recipe but I love just that tiny bit of creamy flavour it adds to the sauce.
- Now it’s time to add that soft crab meat (photo 5) – tip it in and give it a mix around . Finally, add the drained pasta (photo 6) and serve.
The sauce is sparse, not loaded like you see with a lot of pasta dishes but it has big flavour, as Italian food does. A little tomato, olive oil and garlic, mixed in with luscious chunks of crab meat are all you need.
The flavour of the crab permeates the whole dish too so you end up with a very light coating of extremely richly flavoured sauce over delicate linguine.
Top Tips for the best crab linguine
The ingredients are few, so use good quality ingredients.
With only 7 ingredients, there’s nowhere to hide. Make sure to use fresh tomatoes at their ripest and fresh crab (definitely no tinned or imitation crab). Use a good drinking wine and the best quality pasta you can.
Substitutions
- Pasta: the linguine can be swapped for many other kinds of pasta – penne, spaghetti, fettucini. Take your pick.
- Crab: I prefer to use whole fresh crab but you could use pre-picked crab meat from the seafood deli (not tinned or imitation). I have in the past used pre-cooked blue swimmer crab and Alaskan king crab claws in this dish and they both are delicious.
- White wine – Use a good quality drinking wine – Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay will all do the trick. You could use a fish stock if you’d prefer not to use wine.
Why this recipe?
In 2016, I married the love of my life and we went on a wonderful 4 week honeymoon visiting our favourite places – Italy and New York. One of my favourite cuisines is Italian food and my favourite place in the world is Venice, the home of this delightful meal.
We spent days just wandering Venice and ate some amazing food including this pasta dish. I hunted down an authentic Venetian cuisine cookbook and this recipe has been adapted from that.
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This is such an amazing dish and if you’re a pasta lover like I am, I know you’ll love it. Perfect for a quick workday meal or serve it up to your friends for a weekend get together. You can’t go wrong with such simple, classic flavours.
Interesting point; every time I type linguine I use a ‘q’ instead of ‘g’. Every. Single. Time.
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Authentic Venetian Crab Linguine
Ingredients
- 300 g good quality dried linguine (10.5oz)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large clove garlic, crushed
- ½ cup dry white wine (125ml)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
- 1 tablespoon cream (optional) (notes)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
- ¾ cup cooked crab meat (notes)
Instructions
- Place a saucepan of salted water over high heat and bring to the boil, then add your pasta.
- Place the oil and garlic to a frying pan over medium heat, stirring. Once the oil is hot, saute the garlic for about 1 minute but don’t let it get too dark.
- Add the wine and turn the heat up to high. Let it bubble away for 2-3 minutes until the wine has almost totally evaporated.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and saute for about 2 minutes, then add the salt and pepper.
- Add 1/2 a cup of the pasta water followed by the cream and give it a good stir. Add the crab and stir until heated through (only about 30 seconds).
- By now the pasta should be al dente, so drain the water away and add the pasta to the sauce. Give it all a good mix, check the seasoning and serve.
Notes
- I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (4 teaspoons worldwide)
- If you are picking the crab meat yourself, you can get 3/4 cup crab meat from 2 cooked spider crabs.
- Using the pasta water in the sauce will help to make the sauce thicker and stick to the pasta.
- I prefer to use whole fresh crab but you could use pre-picked crab meat from the seafood deli (not tinned or imitation). Blue Swimmer Crab and even Alasking king crab claws both work great.
- Use a good quality drinking wine for this recipe. A sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, semillon will all work fine.
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20 Comments on “Venetian Crab Linguine”
This was so good. I’m a spicy person, so I mixed my Italian regions by adding just a teaspoon of calabrian chili to the sauce, and mmmmmm! It gave it some nice heat.
So glad you love it Zadie and I love the addition of chilli flakes. Yum.
I made this with a few of the added suggestions and it was outstanding. I substituted a small shallot for some of the garlic; increased tomatoes, added a little squeeze of lemon, and served it with both a bit of flat-leafed parsley and a little chiffonade of fresh basil. I think my fresh Dungeness crab was closer to a cup, as well.
It’s a fabulous, simple recipe that really lets the sweetness of the crab shine. I’ll definitely be making this again!
So glad you liked it Cindy. Your additions sound wonderful 🙂
More cherry tomatoes
So glad you enjoyed it, John
This looks absolutely delicious. I would love to visit Italy one day. It sounds like a wonderful honeymoon you guys had 🙂
I’d go back there again and again if I could. Beautiful place, beautiful food, beautiful coffee. We had a wonderful time.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried a crab pasta (even at the restaurant). This dish looks and sounds phenomenally delicious; love how all the ingredients support but not overpower the delicate crab meat. Perfection!
It’s really lovely. It was a dish that really stuck with me when I was travelling so I’m so happy to be able to recreate it at home 🙂
This looks and sounds like dinner dreams coming true. I love to see good seafood recipes, especially if they include pasta 😉 . This is a special one. Take care.
Thanks so much Stacey 🙂
I had a mushroom pasta in Rome once and have NEVER been able to recreate that depth of mushroom flavour in my own kitchen. Perhaps you can give us a recipe for that as well Marie. I would really appreciate it.
Oh you are going to kill me Marie but I use a CAN in my crab linguine ! I live a long way from any fresh fish stores…..well that is my excuse !
And I love Venice too ! It is such a unique place.
Hehe that’s so funny Pamela – the can of crab I mean. I’ll put a mushroom pasta on my list to try but have you tried using tried porcini? They have a very bold flavour so that might be something to try ?
This is a great recipe, my wife is still raving about it an hour after finishing dinner.
We did doctor it up. We added about 8 ounces (3/4 cup) of cubed portabella mushrooms and a diced shallot at the beginning to the oil, cooking for a few minutes. Then added the garlic and followed the recipe.
At serving, a little fresh lemon over the top really added a “fresh” taste”
Absolutely wonderful! Hopefully you will find it that way too.
I love that you changed it up to your tastes. The lemon over the top would indeed be a lovely touch.
Although I like compound pasta dishes, there’s nothing better (most of the times) than simple things. You don’t need too many ingredients to enjoy good pasta – just garlic, herbs, olive oil…and apparently crab too 🙂 Never made crab pasta before, but now I’m intrigued!
It’s so delicious and it’s the simplicity that just takes me back there
Ok, so when I get married I want a 4 week honeymoon now (never even thought of anything more than a week) and I want it In Italy with this Pasta!
Haha! It was quite indulgent but totally amazing