How did I make Crab Napoleon Pasta that I imagined a million times in my mind.
Okay, this is a dish that I have imagined a million times in my mind. I have not taken this recipe from another source other than the idea behind the silk handkerchief pasta from the chef Jamie Oliver.
I have imagined going to a restaurant and ordering this amazing dish as an appetizer or as a main first course. Oh, the idea of biting into this…wait…. I did…..there is something to be said about planning your own surprise party.
So the following is a step by step guide on how to make this dream pasta, I also do a variation on the sauce and make a tomato sauce with crab. YAY crab, but you can use prawn if you don’t like crab.
Step 1: Make pasta. I cheat and use a food processor to minimize time. Mix together 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp water. Add more egg if it does not roll together in a ball while processing.
Step 2: Roll out pasta. I use a pasta maker seen in the picture below. I roll it to #7 which you can see on the pasta maker.
Step 3: Cut the pasta in rectangular shapes.
Step 4: Okay, the pasta is made. Set it aside while you make the sauce. Use 5 tomatoes, 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 tbs of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Step 5: Saute the onions and garlic first then add the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes break down. The sauce should look like this after being in the pan for awhile.
Step 6: Cook crab. I steam mine for 10 min in water with lemon in it.
Step 7: Pull crab meat out of the crab and add to the sauce.
Step 8: As sauce is cooking and almost done cooking the pasta. Fresh pasta takes about 1 min if it’s cooked in cast iron griddle.
Step 9: There are two ways in my imagination to serve this dish. Layer the pasta with sauce in between each rectangle as an appetizer or mix the sauce and pasta together for the main entree. Both were wildly delicious. The basil and Parmesan cheese need to be mixed in right at the end.
Step 10: Combine the fresh made pasta with the sauce immediately, so the pasta does not stick together.
Reserve cut basil for the last minute and garnish with Parmesan. You can serve this pasta as a main course. Or you can serve it as an appetizer. This would be one of those assemble ASAP kinds of dishes. I call it, “crab napoleon”. Here I am loving every bite…for real.
