Ingredients
For the pasta dough:
This only serves 2-4 people. I would advise doing 1.5 portions.
- 375g plain flour
- 180ml water
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- Sea salt
For the sauce:
- 50ml olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 fresh chilli
- 300 ml white wine
- 4 large red-vine ripened tomatoes, chopped into 8 pieces
- 500g white crab meat
- 100g brown crab meat (it packs a lot more flavour than white meat)
- Juice and zest of whole lemon
- Large handful of parsley
- Handful of parmigiana reggiano
- 10 plum tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
Method
For the pasta:
- Start with a large mixing bowl and mix the above ingredients together with your hands.
- Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes and once it has started to come together in the bowl, transfer to a chopping board.
- Begin to kneed it back and forth until it is beautiful and silky(you should be able to make a thumb print in it)
- Using a rolling pin, roll out in a rectangle (shorter width and longer length) until about 2cm thick
- Chop in half. Wrap each half in cling film and leave to rest for at least half an hour in the fridge.
- Once you are ready, fill a large tray with flour to avoid the pici sticking together.
- Unwrap one half of the dough and cut into three strips. Continue to cut those into even smaller strips for all your dough.
- Now using the palm of your hand, roll into long, spaghetti-looking strips (don’t use flour).
- Place these strips into the tray with flour. After each layer sprinkle a bit more flour on top.
- Tip: Don’t cut all of your dough into strips at one time as a crust will form, making it difficult to roll into thin strips. Work with one half ata
For the sauce:
- Start by heating up the olive oil in a wok/ large pan.
- Add the garlic and chilli and gently fry on a low heat for 1/2minutes.
- Pour in the wine and turn up the heat. Allow the sauce to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and cook over a reduced heat for 15/20 minutes, until the tomatoes have started to break down and the consistency of the sauce begins to thicken.
- Season with sea salt and pepper. Stir through the white and brown crab meat, followed by the lemon juice and zest.
- Then add the parsley and parmesan and stir through.
- I love making a separate tomato sauce with plum tomatoes, as I feel they add an extra level of depth to the flavour (personally). This is so easy and actually I incorporate it in a lot of other dishes, such as using it make a simple fish stew, with a piece of white fish flaked and cooked through.
- Simply add a good glug of olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (crushed),the plum tomatoes and 2 tbsp tomato puree in a non-stick pan on a low heat. As the tomatoes start to break down, slowly add dashes of boiling water. Do this each time the sauce begins to thicken again. I normally leave it for 30/45 mins and then take it off the heat to be incorporated into the pasta dish at the end.I would normally stir through some fresh basil right at the end, but I left it out for this recipe.
- For the pasta: Cook for 5 minutes. Reserve a cup full of the starchy pasta water. Drain.
- Stir the pasta through the sauce over heat with the reserved pasta water. Serve with more parsley, parmesan and the plum tomato sauce.
