Quick Crab Spaghetti with Wild Sea Vegetables

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 15 mins

This supper is like the seaside on a plate, starring a mix of wild foraged sea veg – including samphire, all gathered specially for us, which go swimmingly with sweet Cornish crab, stirred into a buttery pasta sauce with pinch of chilli heat.

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590 kcal
(per portion)

Ingredients you'll need

80g wild coastal mix
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon
A handful of flat leaf parsley, leaves only
200g spaghetti
45g butter
A pinch or 2 of dried chilli flakes
100g white crab meat
50g watercress
1 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar

From your kitchen

Freshly ground pepper

Step by step this way

1.
Put a large pan of water on to boil. Give the sea veg a good wash. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. Finely grate the zest from the lemon. Pick the parsley leaves from their stalk and roughly chop them (discard the stalks or keep them to go in your stockpot).
2.
When the water in the pan is boiling, add the sea veg. Simmer for 3 mins, then scoop them out of the water and pop them aside in a colander to cool for a min. (See our tip for what to do with each type of veg, once it’s cool enough to handle.) Set the prepped sea veg to one side.
3.
Bring the water back to the boil and add the spaghetti. Simmer for 8 mins till the spaghetti is tender but still with some bite.
4.
While the spaghetti simmers, put a deep frying pan on a medium heat for 2 mins, then add the butter and swirl it round the pan till it’s melted. Add the garlic and a pinch or 2 of the chilli flakes (they’re hot, so use as large or little a pinch as you like). Fry, stirring, for 30 secs till the garlic is golden.
5.
Flake the crab meat into the pan. Crack in a little black pepper and fry, stirring, for 3 mins. Then add the sea veg and the lemon zest to the pan. Fry, stirring for another 2 mins.
6.
The spaghetti should be ready by now. Scoop 1 cup of water out of the pan (mind your fingers). Drain the spaghetti, then add it to the frying pan with the crab. Add around 50ml of the pasta water then toss to mix everything together.
7.
Divide the crab spaghetti between 2 warm plates. Serve with handfuls of the watercress on the side, drizzled with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Tip
Green means go
If any lemons in your box look a little on the green side, fear not! They’re called Verdelli, and are every bit as lemony as their yellow cousins. Some lemons are forced to turn yellow through gassing with ethylene, but that’s not very organic now, is it? We like our lemons just as they are.

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