This dish is no looker but does have summer at the beach distilled into its messy heart.
In the original recipe Sophie Dahl recommends a mix of white and brown crabmeat. I’d wasn’t sure I’d had crab that hadn’t first been through Mr. Shipham’s factory and emerged as paste. A sidewards scuttle at the chiller cabinet and I soon realised why (and the thinking which lay behind the diminutive jars of Mr.S’ paste ) brown crabmeat, £2.49 for 100g, white £4.99 . I came home with brown alone.
However back in the kitchen a tip of the knife, tasting scoop of the ’ painstakingly handpicked‘ crab did transport me to straight to Cornwall with no M5 inbetween to spoil things. And if undertaking the journey for real, I’d now know to take pestle and mortar, finely chopped red chilli and garlic clove to crush tailback woes into oblivion. If last week’s risotto’s pleasure was soothing stirring, this was pulverising and pounding .
The only thing I might change (apart from a supermodel bank balance to buy all ingredients) would be to decrease the amount of garlic. Just as when, after a day at the beach, the soft sand which was so welcome between your toes, becomes gritty and irritating as it shakes itself loose from everything on your return home, so the garlic breaks free from mingled flavours to linger on ….but otherwise this bowl of spaghetti, seafood and tomato is paddle in a cool rockpool.
