Cornish crab, black linguine and overnight tomatoes
- Prepare
- overnight
- Cook
- over 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 4
- Dietary
- Dairy-free
A dramatic dish with homemade squid ink pasta stirred through a sauce made of slow-roasted cherry tomatoes and crab.
Equipment and preparation: You will need a pasta machine with a linguine cutting attachment.
Ingredients
For the overnight tomatoes
- 14 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tbsp sherry vinegar
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
For the black linguine
For the Cornish crab
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 40g/1½oz pine nuts
- 2 red chilli, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 150g/5½oz white crab meat
- 75g/2¾oz rocket
- 10g/⅓oz fresh basil, torn
- 1 lemon, zest only
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
Method
The night before you want to serve the dish, preheat the oven to its lowest setting – around 70C/50C Fan/Gas ¼.
To make the overnight tomatoes, place the cherry tomatoes on a baking tray. Top each tomato half with a sliver of garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper, then lightly drizzle the sherry vinegar all over the tomatoes.
Place the tray in the preheated oven and go to bed. Cook for around 6 hours. Wake up the next morning to the best-smelling kitchen and little red jewels of flavour.
To make the black linguine, add the flour, extra virgin olive oil and a couple of pinches of salt to a food processor with a blade attachment and pulse to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks and squid ink together.
Turn on the food processor and slowly add the egg mixture to the flour. Once the mixture starts to crumb, but can be pinched together to form a dough, it’s ready.
Tip the pasta out onto a dry surface, bring it together with your hands, then knead well for a few minutes. Wrap the pasta in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
Once chilled, use a pasta machine to roll out the pasta. Attach the linguine attachment and roll the pasta through the machine again into long strips, then hang over a clothes hanger for 20 minutes to dry.
Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for about 1 minute. Drain in a colander and rinse under a running cold tap to cool, holding your hand under the cold water to reduce the pressure so it doesn’t damage the pasta. Once cool, drain well and mix some extra virgin olive oil through it.
To make the Cornish crab, place a medium to large shallow casserole-style pan over a medium heat and warm the extra virgin olive oil.
Add the pine nuts and stir until golden, then add the chilli and garlic and stir for a minute or so to release the flavour.
Add the overnight tomatoes and stir with the lemon juice, a couple of pinches of sea salt and some cracked black pepper. Add half the crab and stir. Next, add the pasta and stir, always keeping the heat controlled. Once the pasta is hot, add the rocket, basil and lemon zest and stir.
Take off the heat and place the pan in the middle of the table with the remaining crab meat on top.
